Wholewheat crostata and some news

Well, if there are two or three people wondering where I've been lately and why I'm not posting regularly on the blog, I finally want to tell that some important changes are happening in my life.
Please don't worry, it's nothing bad, just something that took most of my time in the last two months and probably will still take it in the next future.
The news is that, after almost two years in Dubai, me and my family just came back to Italy; and exactly for the same reason why we had moved to Dubai two years ago: my husband work. Something we were somehow prepared to, even if we were getting used to Dubai lifestyle and for sure we'll miss it a bit.

To be honest I would have much preferred to cook, take and edit pictures, write recipes and posts rather than doing what I actually did in the last two months, that is in random order: meeting with moving companies for relocating all of our things back to Italy (and realizing how much stuff is possible to accumulate in just two years is quite shocking), finding a school for my son (actually two, as most likely we are going to move from where we are now), make a selection of things to leave back or throw away, wrapping all our clothes and other stuff in plastic covers to protect them during the travel, getting some refunds for activities paid in advance (this apparently easy task was actually a tough one), preparing the luggage to carry with us (one of which almost full of food, of course), meeting with friends to say bye (this was the best part actually, even if the saddest one and even if I didn't have the time to see all the people I would have loved to). And the daily routine? Almost the same as before, of course ...

Soft crostata with almonds and apricot jam

Another recipe for crostata today!
I said before on this blog how much I like this type of sweet baked good and how much I enjoy "playing" with the recipe changing, every time I make it, the combination of the main ingredients: flour, sugar / sweetener, fat, raising agent (the options being yes or no) and filling (jam in the most basic and simple version).
And in the blog you can find some of the crostata recipes I prefer and make more often (check out this link).
But with today's recipe I have added another variable to those mentioned above, that is the filling technique.

Jam crostata (tart) with kamut shortcrust

I have already said how much I like crostata (the Italian tart) in a previous post where I have also shared some basic technical information on how to make pasta frolla, the Italian shortcrust pastry (follow this link to read more) along with one of my favorite recipes.

Since crostata, in any possible form, is a family favorite, and the simplest version - with a jam filling - is the kind of breakfast we all prefer, I make it regularly. What I like to do is to change, in a sort of rotation, not only the jam flavor but also the ingredients for the crust (as for the preparation technique, my favorite is the "crumble technique" explained, with other methods, in the above mentioned post). 

As I said in that post about crostata (see here) there are many different recipes even for the basic pasta frolla, and among all them I have two or three favorites that I alternatively use. But I also like to make more original variants, using different types of flour or sugar and / or replacing butter for extra virgin olive oil.

Honey thumbprint cookies

Honey is an amazing product...and for several reasons. First of all let's think of honey makers: the idea that tiny, fragile insects like bees are able to collect / extract nectar and other substances from flowers and plants and transform them into a range of products - honey first, but also royal jelly, propolis, and beeswax- for feeding and sustaining their perfectly organized communities (and not only) may seem hard to believe (like other impressive things we find in nature though). Second honey is packed with nutritive properties: it isn't just a sweetener, a natural sweetener, it is a food. In fact, besides glucose and fructose - that are natural sugars - honey contains minerals and vitamins; it has antioxidant, antiseptic and anti-bacterial properties. The possible health benefits of consuming honey have been documented since ancient times, and in many cultures, honey had associations that go beyond its use as a food, being considered a religious symbol or used in religious celebrations. And even if not all the honey's health claims have been scientifically confirmed by rigorous studies, it is widely used in many home remedies, some of them actually effective: honey is a natural relief for sore throat and cough, helps to sleep better (the popular cup of milk and honey before going to bed...), is an energy booster and therefore very useful before a workout but even everyday physical strain; it can also be used as a natural ingredient in homemade skin and hair care products. The only warning is that honey should not be fed to infants younger than 1 year to avoid the risk of possible allergic reactions.

Jam crostata (tarte) with spelt and olive oil crust

Happy new year everyone! I wish you all the best for the just welcomed 2015 and hope that you enjoyed the festive season, whether you spent this time of the year with your loved ones, your friends, never met before people or even on your own.
Christmas of 2014 was my real first Christmas in Dubai; last year, in fact, I had recently arrived and spent most of the Christmas period relocating from the residence where we stayed for about two months to the apartment where we are living now; and the 31st of December was the day when we actually moved to our apartment... I can say it was a peculiar Christmas. This year, on the contrary, we had a more "normal" Christmas - even if anyway much different than the kind of Christmas I was used to when living in Italy (where Christmas mainly meant gathering with my family in my home village, eating my mom's traditional recipes - I misses them this year - and having a rest from work). This year we decorated a Christmas tree, part of my husband's family came to Dubai and spent the Christmas period with us, my son enjoyed for the first time in his life the experience of finding and opening the presents left for him by Santa (or whoever on his behalf) under the Christmas tree, we appreciated some of the many different things that can be done in this city during the festive season and we enjoyed the lovely weather spending time and dining outside (our guests appreciated this much more then me and my family....). I enjoyed this time very much. And I also had the chance to go around the city as a tourist, which I like very much.

Jam-filled tartlets

I have one - frankly speaking several - notebook where I take note of recipes I want to try (and after I make one of them, the relative page becomes full of comments: my variations / substitutions, cooking tips and, of course, tasting notes). Many of them are recipes that I specifically search for, but there are some that I stumble upon by chance while randomly surfing the web or flipping through magazines or cookbooks or watching TV cooking shows. And these recipes are usually written down in one go; being inspired by the curiosity or the beautiful picture or by the fact that I have never made something similar, and paying attention not to miss any ingredient or preparation step, I sometimes do not take into great consideration the quantity and proportion of the various ingredient the recipe calls for. And so, when I go through one of my notebooks in search for inspiration, and read more carefully what I wrote, I find recipes (often for desserts) requiring quantities of certain ingredients that, in my opinion, cannot be part of  a as-healthy-as-possible diet (that is the kind of diet which drives me daily, first while shopping at the supermarket/market, then when preparing meals): amounts of butter and/or so exaggerate quantities of sugar requiring a detoxifying period to get back to normal values of cholesterol and glycemia. Don't think that I am obsessed with healthy food or that I banned some ingredients (actually I avoid to buy, use or eat some things for healthy reason but this is not the case of butter and sugar that, to me, are fundamental ingredients, especially when making sweets and baked goods); but, when it's too much...
Well, thanks to this deeper analysis I can eliminate recipes that for sure I will never make; but there are recipes that, even if a little "too rich", for some reason are still inspiring me, and remain in the list of the recipes to try. It is the case of these small cakes, that I have seen in the deliaonline website.

Crostata alla marmellata (jam tarte) and a lesson on how to make pasta frolla

Crostata, the Italian word for tart or pie, is one of the most popular and loved sweet baked goods in Italy. It is prepared in almost infinite forms and varieties, with local / regional versions, and it is possible to find at least one type of crostata in every single bakery, patisserie, bar and café all over the country. But also the homemade version is very common: almost all families have their own recipe which is usually handed down from mother to daughter. The peculiarity of crostata is the pastry dough used, the pasta frolla, that is the Italian take on the sweet shortcrust pastry - and this why I like to call it with the Italian name.
Pasta frolla is probably the most used basic dough in Italian pastry-making for preparing shells or closed pies, that can be topped or filled with an infinite variety of ingredients: custards, fruits, chocolate ganache, ricotta-based fillings, caramel sauce, or even savory fillings; the most simple of all possible fillings is jam or marmalade. This "basic" version of the crostata is absolutely my favorite breakfast and I make it very often. And it is so tasty and comforting that any moment of the day is perfect for having a little wedge of it.
But even if apparently simple, pasta frolla is not really the easiest of doughs to prepare or handle. Considering my passion for any kind of crostata I wanted to know more about pasta frolla and to discover how to make it in the best way, and studied a bit. Even if I like improvisation in the kitchen, cooking and especially baking and making pastries, I'm afraid, is all a matter of chemistry and physics. I do not want to bother anybody with a scientific treatise, but I like to share some basic pieces of information that can help anybody to make a good pasta frolla, which is a basic pastry dough perfect for almost any kind of sweet (and some savory) tarte one can imagine (and if someone has not understood yet, it is my favorite one). And once one masters just a little bit of this topic, no store-bought pastry shell or pastry dough will ever after been taken into consideration when deciding to make a tarte or a pie.