Baking Exploits in Italy...

If you know me, or have read through some of the posts from last year then you know that I really like baking. I enjoy making desserts, even though I'm not a particularly precise person. I use recipes and then completely change things as I go even when baking.  It's supposed to be the science of cooking, and is, but I still like to tweak and play.
That being said, I haven't baked in ages.
I tried baking cupcakes back in December but sadly they didn't come out as well as they could have.  I had a couple of problems to contend with. The main issue was ingredients. Since Italians aren't big cake bakers (they're great with desserts and pastries but don't make fluffy cakes and cupcakes like we make in the States) I had a hard time finding the right kind of baking powder and baking soda. Vanilla comes in powder form, unless you go to specialty shops. Brown sugar here is not brown sugar but cane sugar, so it is darker in color but not finely ground. It doesn't pack well and therefore changes the texture of any cake or cookie that calls for it.
Ingredients were a slight problem, and so was measuring. I didn't own a measuring cup here because a measuring cup here doesn't measure cups but milliliters.  I didn't feel like taking the effort to convert my recipes into Italy appropriate measurements  so I just used a drinking glass to measure... Yes, so this doesn't really work.
Anyone with half a brain, probably wouldn't have tried to make it work but I'm a little insistent on doing things my way.
My chocolate chip cupcakes were edible but they weren't quite right either. They didn't rise the right way and certainly didn't get fluffy like I wanted.  No one complained, so I suppose they were good, but I wasn't happy with them.
I wanted to try again, but then th eoven broke.  Ok, not quite the oven, just the dial.
That being said, it took over a month for it to get fixed. I live in Italy after all.
So I had bought new pans, measuring cups and spoons and I couldn't bake until last night!
I finally got to bake something successfully last night.
My student gave me lemons from her garden so I decided to use them to make lemon squares for the

first time ever.  I looked up a bunch of recipes before getting the oven fixed which was quite comical. I looked up No Bake Lemon Cake and No Bake Lemon Bars and for some reason Yummly (a recipe search engine) linked me to a bunch of recipes that definitely required baking.
I was a little confounded but in the end it was fine, because I found 2 recipes that seemed great for when I got my oven back. Luckily, we got a new dial Wednesday morning so yesterday evening after work it was time to try some baking.
I'm going to have to post the recipe later on because my lemon squares came out wonderfully. Sweet, moist and gooey.
I made 2 batches and I was ridiculously pleased with both!

my beautiful lemon squares

Recipe: Grilled Pear and Gouda Sandwich

Blatantly I'm becoming obsessed with grilled cheese sandwiches.  But I can't seem to help myself. They are delicious (if one loves cheese) and pair well with countless other ingredients, including completely surprising ingredients like fruit.
This was such a light but delicious combination for a grilled cheese sandwich.  The gouda was mild in flavor and melted beautifully while the pear incredibly crisp yet not overly sweet. I think the pears would work well with other stronger cheeses as well like gorgonzola.

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread
butter
1 pear
gouda cheese
basil
salt and pepper to taste

Thinly slice your gouda and layer it on both pieces of bread. Make sure there are no gaps, you want cheesey goodness in every bite. Make the layer as thick or thin as you like. I like lots of cheese so my layer of gouda was pretty thick.

Then melt your butter in a pan over low heat and add your bread. Keep a close eye on the bread so it
doesn't burn but in the meantime thinly slice your pears and place on the gouda. I used 3/4 of a medium pear and then ate the rest of the pear as a snack.
Let the cheese melt evenly and sprinkle with basil, salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from the heat, close the sandwich and eat while warm.
The cheese will be melted and gooey while the pears will remain crisp and sweet with the bread toasted and buttery.  The salt, pepper and basil really add some nice warmth to the sandwich, so I hope you enjoy!

Loved this presentation to see the layers of delicious!

Recipe: Grilled Chocolate and Strawberry Sandwich

I found a recipe for a grilled brie, raspberry and dark chocolate sandwich and I really want to try it.  The photo looked so amazing and I'm very curious about the combination of brie and chocolate.  I feel like the raspberries would be an amazing way too bring the flavors together.
I went to the store with intentions of getting raspberries and brie but sadly I couldn't find raspberries so I bought strawberries instead.  Less of a tang but still enough sweetness to work with the cheese and chocolate.
I wanted to try making my brie, choclate and strawberry grilled cheese but just as I was prepping it as a dessert my roommates came into the kitchen and I lost my nerve.  I chickened out and didn't make the sandwich I had originally intended to make.  I just didn't feel like explaining my logic to my roommates (AGAIN) and get the judging looks.  I love my roommates. They are amazing girls but not always the most adventurous with food.
So instead of making my grilled cheese dessert I made a grilled chocolate and strawberry sandwich with no brie that was utterly amazing.  Next time I'll make it with my brie regardless of who's around.

Ingredients:
2 slices bread
2-3 pats of butter
1 bar dark chocolate
3-5 strawberries

I had a very large bar of chocolate to make my sandwich so I used a sharp knife to make chocolate shavings.  I decided for finer shavings rather than large chunks so the chocolate would melt faster and more evenly.
I covered both slices of bread with a medium layer of chocolate. If you're a chocoholic add more!  Then I sliced the strawberries and put them to the side for later.  
Put the better in a pan and heat over a low flame.  When the butter is melted, carefully place the bread in the pan.  Try not to let the chocolate touch the pan because it will melt, burn and then stick to the pan.
Let the bread get nice and golden shifting it around the pan once in a while (to make sure it's not sitting in any hot spots). A few minutes should do.  The chocolate will start to lighten in color.
When you take the bread out of the pan, you will be able to easily spread the chocolate with a knife and it will magically look like nutella.
Add the slices of strawberry to one of the slices, close the sandwich and eat happily.

The chocolate and strawberries are delicious between the slices of warm buttery bread. I was very very pleased with my dessert sandwich.

Variation: Spicy Chicken fingers

I'm always making some kind of chicken fingers.  They're simple to make, quick and easy.
So I keep making different variations to keep myself entertained. Plain chicken fingers would be boring.
I've made Honey Turkey Fingers, Pesto Chicken Fingers and now I've added a Spicy Chicken fingers to my collection as well.

It's exactly like making the pesto chicken fingers except you use hot pepper sauce, or a chilli paste

instead of a pesto sauce.  I used a couple of tablespoons of my Calabrian spicy sauce to coat my chicken and then dredged them in my bread crumb mixture and then cooked them as per usual.  Quite simple and fast.
I served it with a light and spicy potato salad and a lovely green salad with feta, tomatoes, red onions and a mix of greens (made by my friend and kitchen assistant Endira).
They were tender and full of flavor and I absolutely love the color! The spicy sauce when cooked under the bread crumbs added a beautiful red tint to the chicken fingers.

Recipe: Almost "Italian" Grilled Cheese

My roommates periodically think I'm crazy. They see me making mac & cheese or grilled cheese or any of my various strange mixings of sweet and savory and think I'm insane.
It makes me laugh, because I may be strange, but I make really good food.  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I know I can cook and cook well. The constant request for meals from friends leads me to believe that for as strange as my recipes can be, everything must be quite good.

In any case last night I made myself a different grilled cheese with this lovely creamy cheese called stracchino. It's another spreadable cheese that has a richer texture and taste than something like cream cheese.
It's very typically Italian so I decided to go with one of it's traditional pairings for my grilled cheese.  Often in restaurants you'll see crostini (toasted bread) with stracchino and sausage, so I decided to do a grilled cheese utilizing the combination.
And then of course I added my own twist by adding an egg cooked over easy to add to the texture and flavor of the whole sandwich and served it with a rich balsamic vinegar as a dipping sauce.

Ingredients:
2 sausages
1/4 small onion
1 tbs olive oil
1 egg
Stracchino cheese
2 slices of whole grain bread (I used white bread because it's what I had)
2 pats of butter
salt and pepper to taste
red pepper flakes to taste

Dice a quarter of an onion finely and put to the side for the moment. Remove the casing from your sausage and cut (or tear) it into small pieces.  Pour a little olive oil into a saucepan, not a lot because the sausage should render out its own fat. Let the oil get hot slowly over a low flame and then add the

onions. As the onions begin to sweat add in the sausage and red pepper flakes to taste.  Leave on the heat stirring often until the sausage is cooked all the way through.
Put the sausage and onion into a plate but do not drain the oil from the pan.  You can use the renderings to cook your egg quickly.  Put the pan back over a low heat and crack the egg into the pan carefully. Spice with a little salt and pepper (I would suggest more pepper than salt).  If you prefer, you can keep your egg sunny side up and cook it on just the one side.  I like cooking both sides briefly, so after a few minutes I very carefully flip my egg and let it cook a little more.  I like to keep the yolk still runny, so I don't leave it in the pan for very long.
Unfortunately, I wasn't using a nonstick pan last night so I had a bit of a problem flipping my egg.  It looked a little wonky but still tasted delicious.  I put the egg on the plate with the sausage and put it to the side.
Next spread the cheese thickly on both sides of bread.

At this point you have two options, you can either grill the bread in the remaining oil in your first pan or you can get a second clean pan and use butter.  I chose to use butter because I liked the idea of the additional flavor and also because my egg had stuck in the first pan so I don't imagine the bread would've cooked evenly.  Using the first pan however would give your bread a lovely smoky, sausage taste that would work on the whole.

If you choose to use butter, place it into a new saucepan and melt slowly on a low flame. When the butter has melted, add your bread into the pan.  Let it brown for a few minutes until golden and then remove from the heat.
Add your sausage and then egg onto one piece of bread. For additional flavor, you can drizzle the egg with balsamic vinegar or a balsamic reduction or you can do what I did and use the balsamic vinegar as a dipping sauce.
The richness and bite of the vinegar should really complement the creaminess of the cheese.

Grilled Cheese Recipe: Balsamic Spinach and Strawberry, Sliced chicken, Walnut Grilled Cheese

Wow. The name and ingredient list is pretty long, but this grilled cheese was an amazing experimert that made my amazing roommates think I'm crazy.  The Italians would never put strawberries into a sandwich or a salad, let alone a grilled sandwich. Almost a week later, I'm still getting teased.  I don't really mind.  I know I'm not crazy. This combination was wonderful! So I made it twice.

This grilled cheese is absolutely beautiful with gorgeous colors.

I used a Walnut cheese that I randomly found in the supermarket.  It is a spreadable cheese with whole
chunks of walnut throughout. I decided to see how it is and I've decided it's really delicious. It is a mild tasting cheese, not overly pungent, with the lovely warm flavor of walnuts.  And the walnuts added a bonus crunch.
My grilled cheese also involved some strawberries for sweetness, some spinach dressed in a thick balsamic vinegar, and slices of chicken breast for protein. Again, AMAZING

Ingredients:
2 pieces of white bread (I would actually prefer whole grain, but I didn't find any at the store that day)
butter
Walnut cheese
2 or 3 strawberries sliced finely
Spinach
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
3 or 4 pieces of thinly sliced chicken or turkey breast

Spread your walnut cheese onto one side of each slice of bread.  If you can't find walnut cheese, I would use

Walnut cheese and Strawberry amazingness

a spreadable cheese like Laughing Cow or even Cream cheese because they are both mild in flavor. If you use one of these alternatives just add some fresh walnuts to your sandwich. Four or five broken into chunks should add just enough crunch and flavor to your sandwich.
Then on one slice of bread add a layer of strawberries.  You can add strawberries to both sides but I think it would make the grilled cheese a little difficult to eat because of the additional moisture.
In a separate bowl, mix your spinach, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  I use an Italian balsamic that is thick and creamy, but that can be hard to find in the states. You can use a regular vinegar (just don't overdo it or the sandwich will get soggy) or you can make your own balsamic reduction by cooking balsamic vinegar, and a touch of sugar in a pan over low heat, stirring constantly until it begins to thicken.  The flavor of the balsamic will intensify and sweeten and really add a nice kick to your sandwich (if you want to go to the extra effort). Place to the side.
Put a couple of pats of butter into a pan and heat over a low flame.  When the butter has heated and begins to sizzle, place your bread dry side down into the pan.  Shake your pan every now and then so it doesn't burn. The bread should grill for a couple of minutes or until it becomes golden and crisp. It will not take very long, so do not leave it unattended! You definitely don't want the bread to burn.
Remove from the heat.
At this point, you can close your sandwich and enjoy your strawberry walnut grilled cheese or you can go all out like I did.
I added a handful of the balsamic spinach, which is a nice complement to the strawberries.

Spinach and Strawberries: This was a different day, but the colors were
too pretty not to post. I should have added even more strawberries.

Then I added the slices of chicken breast and closed my beautiful crispy grilled cheese.  The cheese was warm and melted quite nicely while the spinach added a beautiful crunch and the chicken was mild enough in
flavor that it melded nicely with everything else.  The bread got to the perfect golden color, so it was crisp and butter on the outside as a wonderful contrast to the creamy cheese and juicy strawberries.
The sandwich can get a little messy so be careful!  The walnut spread does not get sticky like some other cheeses so it won't hold the strawberries perfectly.  You may wind up with some runaways!