Maple and walnuts brittles: the recipe

April 07, 2019 by Lucia D'Ulivo in Dessert

In past, maple syrup was obtained by boiling the maple water collected from the trees. The process allows the evaporation of water and the concentration of sugars. During the boiling the sugars caramelize and reacts with the amino acids present in the maple water, which gives the syrup the typical amber color.

Coconut pudding: the recipe...vegan

March 10, 2019 by Lucia D'Ulivo in Dessert

After the disappointment of the last week, I was totally determined to get my revenge with corn starch. Thus, I decided to make another classic of the Italian gastronomy: bianco mangiare. Shortly, a pudding. Now, there are various versions of this dessert: a few of them want almond milk, others regular cow milk. Corn starch is the most common thickening agent, although gelatine is used in some recipes. Since I wanted a vegan recipe, either cow milk or gelatine are out of the picture. Therefore, I trusted the two plant based ingredients that can honour this recipe the best: coconut milk and corn starch.

Vegan custard: the recipe

March 03, 2019 by Lucia D'Ulivo in Dessert

The idea was, indeed, to make the Sicilian gelo, replacing watermelon with mano and pineapple…after having placed the gelo in the fridge and waited patiently 4 hours (and eventually overnight, just to be 100% sure), my dessert hasn’t jellied :( Why? By browsing the web, I found that making a mano and pineapple gelo is indeed feasible…also because we use corn starch and not gelatine that will be hydrolyzed by the pineapple’s proteolytic enzymes. Can someone help me to figure this out???

Vegan coconut gelato: the recipe

February 10, 2019 by Lucia D'Ulivo in Dessert

It is not really the time for gelato (we have -10, here in Ottawa…and, overall, I should not complain considering that we could easily be at -20, given the season and the time of the year), but this recipe turned so well at the first attempt, which is now officially part of my vegan recipes repertoire.

Panettone 2018

December 30, 2018 by Lucia D'Ulivo in Dessert

Panettone, as well as pandoro and colomba, are the big challenges of Italian pastry. And as such, I have always faced them with a bit of nervousness (will the dough torque? will the dough rise? will the cake collapse after baking?). But this year, no pressure. On the other hand, the entire preparation went very smoothly, with each successful step after one other. Just luck or, maybe, am I becoming more confident with these types of baking products? Who knows ;)