May 5 - Giro d’Italia - Stage 2: San Francesco al Campo to Santuaria di Oropa (Biella)
It’s been over a month since my last post. Life has been super busy with work and coaching my daughters’ soccer teams, but I am finally back to cooking. Who’d have thought I’d be bookending this period with 2 baking dishes - have things changed or what?! While I wish I could say things have calmed down, they are still a bit cray-cray, and now my oven is busted. Can you make cookies without a properly functioning oven? While I don’t recommend it, the answer is yes. I used my broiler to heat the oven and went slightly above the normal baking temperature and let it hold/cool naturally. Don’t worry; the recipe below is how it would bake in a normally-functioning oven.
So, what got me inspired to get back in the kitchen? The Giro! That’s right, the Giro d’Italia started yesterday. However, as you can see by me only making something for Stage 2, things are changing-up a bit. I don’t have time to prepare and post daily meals like I had the past few years. It’s sad, but also much easier on me, so a little bittersweet. However, I am still bringing you regionally-specific food content. It will just be sporadic. Today, I made Canestrelli which are lemon-butter-sugar cookies from the Piemonte region of NW Italy. While there is a nutty-caramelized version of this cookie, I went with a lighter spring option which employs hard-boiled egg yolks. You can make a bunch of smaller daisy-shaped cookies, but I went with a palm-sized version.
Canestrelli
3 eggs
1 cup AP flour
½ cup + 1.5 tbsp confectioners sugar (+ more for dusting)
¾ cup + 2 tbsp cornstarch
Zest from ½ a lemon
11 tbsp cold, salted butter, diced
½ tsp vanilla extract
Daisy shaped cookie-cutter and round pastry tip
Parchment paper
Cooling racks
Place the eggs in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover the pot and turn off the heat. Let the eggs cook for 10 minutes then transfer to a bowl of ice-water. Let the eggs sit in the ice water for 10 minutes. Remove the shells and slice the egg in half. Place the egg yolks in a bowl and eat the whites.
Meanwhile, combine the flour, sugar and cornstarch in a sifter and sift over a food processor.
Add in the lemon zest and pulse a few times to combine.
Add in the butter and vanilla and pulse several times until the butter breaks down.
Finally, mash the egg yolks with a fork and add them into the food processor. Mix until the dough thickens and starts combining and falling over itself from the edges, almost combining into one mass.
Lightly dust a work surface and pour the dough out. Briefly knead until combined and form into a rough 8” disc. Wrap with cling film and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours (or up to 24 hours).
When ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly dust a work surface and roll the cold dough out until about ⅓” thick.
Using the daisy-form cookie cutter, press out the shapes. Using the wide end of the pastry tip, cut out holes in the middle of the cookie shapes.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, and place the cookies thereon.
Bake for about 8-10 minutes (the cookies should firm-up, but not brown).
Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Then cool on racks for 10 minutes.
Dust the cooled cookies with more confectioners sugar and enjoy!
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