We’re back!!!! After 2 months we’re finally back to blogging!

Were do we even begin? Perhaps with Lisa’s wedding? Well, we can start but telling you that it was simply amazing! The wedding was beautiful from start to finish. It was so great being there with our family. One of the most exciting parts was how Lisa got married in the same church that our parents, grandparents, and relatives did.

We know you would love to see pictures, so here’s a link to see just how breathtaking it was. It was a day our entire family will never forget. Even though we miss Italy, it’s great to be back home and blogging again.

After returning from Italy, we felt like we hadn’t baked in ages! Our Dad’s Birthday was in the beginning of September, so we knew we had to make him something special. This is where Mrs. Giannelli’s Italian Sponge Cake comes in.

Your probably wondering who Mrs. Giannelli is…. Growing up in Glenview, IL the Giannelli’s lived behind us and they became good friends with our family. I think the initial connection began due to the fact that both our families were Italian. Over the 15+ years we lived by each other our Mom and Mrs. Giannelli exchanged many recipes. This Italian Sponge cake was one of them, and it was our favorite one.

To make this along story short, both families moved to different towns. Over the moving process, our mom lost the recipe. It had been years since she’d made it. We kept telling her to call Mrs. Giannelli to get the recipe again, but it would always slip her mind. Well, the day came when we were digging through some boxes of photos, and low and behold, we accidentally found the recipe! We were ecstatic and could not wait to make it. This cake is so simple, yet tastes soo good! There’s simply nothing like it. We we told our sister Stephanie that we would be making this cake and she seriously said that she was going to cry because of how excited she was to reunite with this cake. We’d missed it that much.  It also brings back great memories from Glenview. We all miss it so much! Even though we don’t get to see the Giannelli’s as often as before, this cake brings us back to all the great memories we had with them.

We wanted to dress the cake up so we sprinkled it with powdered sugar and top it with strawberries. Please note that this photo was taken with Maria’s iphone, not to bad though.

We hope many of you will enjoy this cake as much as our family does!

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

6 eggs

1 cup corn oil

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of half a lemon

2 cups flour

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease your pan well. Beat eggs and sugar for 15 minutes.  Add oil, lemon zest and juice and beat for 5 more minutes. Next, fold in flour slowly. Combine warm milk and bp together and add to egg mixture. Bake for 55-60 minutes.

As Mrs. Giannelli says,  do not open the oven door and don’t walk in front of the oven while the cake is baking because you will disturb the cake and it will not rise!

Ciambelle are Italian sugared donuts that are made with potato. I’m sure many of you have never heard of donuts with potatoes in them, but seriously, this is your chance to try our favorite donut. These things are amazing and there’s no stopping at just one.

Ciambelle, are typical Italian desserts prepared in the occasion of Carnevale. Carnevale, also known as carnival or mardi gras, is celebrated in Italy and many places around the world 40 days before Easter, a final party before Ash Wednesday and the restrictions of Lent.

In Italy, the festival is celebrated with parades, masquerade balls, entertainment, music, and parties. Children throw confetti at each other. Mischief and pranks are also common during Carnevale, hence the saying A Carnevale Ogni Scherzo Vale, anything goes at carnival.

Masks, maschere, are an important part of the carnevale festival and Venice is the best city for traditional carnival masks.

These Ciambelle and other fried donuts are made and sold during this period.

We’ve only been to Italy once during Carnevale when we were in the 2nd grade. For us, these ciambelle bring back memories of the beach and not Carnevale. Every summer in Italy we remember going to the beach and buying these ciambelle. They were sold on the beaches and they were what we always looked forward too. The potato in these donuts give them such a wonderful texture and helps keep them moist and fluffy.

Here’s the recipe:

Makes 3 dozen’

Ingredients

1 kilo flour
200 gr whole milk, warm
200 gr butter, softened
6 eggs
400 gr potatoes, cooked and mashed
140 gr sugar
30 gr fresh yeast
16 gr salt
The zest of one lemon

Super fine sugar

Directions

Mix the warm milk with the yeast until the yeast is melted. Pour in a stand mixer and add 180 grams of flour. Let it rest and activate for 40 minutes.

In the mean time, clean and peel the potatoes, cutting them in small pieces. Boil them for about 20 minutes, when they are ready let them cool and then mash them.

Add the eggs, salt, sugar and 600 grams of flour and mix. Add the potatoes and 100 grams of flour. Now, add the butter and mix until incorporated. Add the rest of the flour and mix. The dough should not be sticky. Transfer it to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Let rise for 2 hours until the dough doubles in volume.

This is what the dough should look like after the two hours.

When the dough is ready, place it onto a floured surface. Keep the dough covered with the plastic wrap while working. Take about 60 grams of dough at a time and form them into balls. Then, with your index finger covered in flour, apply pressure in the middle of the ball and whirl it around to form a ring.

Here is what they should look like.

Place the donuts onto floured cookie sheets and cover them with kitchen towels. Let rise for 2 hours.

Once the donuts have risen, heat the oil to 330 degrees.

Fry the donuts 1-2 minutes on each side. When done, transfer them to a tray lined with paper towel and let drain for 1 minutesand then roll them in the sugar!

Look how fluffly they are!

Let’s get a little closer so you can really see!

If you have any questions with the amounts of ingredients, and don’t have a scale to measure the grams, just ask and we’d be glad to help!

Have any of you ever had Stella D’oro anisette sponge biscotto?? We grew up eating those since we can remember! We just started eating them again recently and remembered why we loved these so much! Wanna know what’s even better? They only have 90 calories for 2 cookies!! =)

We wanted to see if we could come up with something similar to those cookies on our own. After giving it a few times and changing things, we finally got a recipe that we liked! They weren’t exactly the same as the Stella D’oro ones, BUT these are definitely a keeper! They are nice and crunchy on the outside and the inside is nice and spongy. Also, we love anything that has anice in it. Not everbody is crazy about that flavor but we are fans of it!

If you want a simple biscotti recipe that is simple and fast and is perfect for breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea or even for a midday\late night snack definitely try these!!