Venetian

Posts Tagged ‘Venetian’

Organic Foods in Venetian Baking Traditions: Learn Easy Organic Cookie Recipes

December 4th, 2009

My Health

The Veneto region, comprising the islands of Venice, and a vast, dry land territory covering Padova, Verona, and Vicenza was largely an agricultural area dedicated to farming of fruits and vegetables, soft wheat, and corn during the pre-industrial age. Because money was scarce, families survived largely on the fruits of their labor: A diet designed around organic grains like corn, that were in abundance, and fish from the Venetian lagoon. Meats were considered a luxury. In fact, cured meats and salamis were a solution to the lack of refrigeration and provided a hearty alternative to the otherwise “poor” diet.

Thus, the organic baking traditions reflected not only the antique traditions, but also the organic ingredients most readily available. Converting corn into polenta for a sweet cookie or for the dinner table represented the marriage of necessity to nutrition. In fact, most of the traditional Venetian organic cookies are dry, rather than moist, given the scarcity of organic ingredients, the difficulty in conserving them, and the palette preferences of the Venetians for a drier organic cookie. Many of the desert and organic cookie recipes were secret, passed down through the maternal side, and often nicknamed “biscotti della nonna” or “grandmother’s cookies” to represent their homemade origins. The organic cookies were jealously conserved in lovely tin or wood boxes, next to the crystal bottles of rose oil, walnut liqueur, or citron liqueur.

Wheat and corn were organic grains that, at the time, were produced according to what we consider today as organic farming. Today, these same recipes are replicated as organic cookies, a healthy alternative to conventional practices, which respect the environment and do not employ the use of pesticides. These sweet organic treats have been made for centuries, although never too sweet, as it was the homemaker’s intention to let the organic ingredients speak for themselves, whereas sugar was an expensive indulgence.

This traditional, organic cookie recipe is easy to prepare: Zaeti

Zaeti in Venetian Dialect translates to “gialetti” in Italian, or “small yellow cookies”, a nickname given for the fact that they are made of yellow corn flour, an element common to every family kitchen in the region, and therefore a sign of their rusticity. To make them more “genteel”, tradition called for the addition of wheat flour, sugar and raisins.

Organic Food Ingredients: 1 1/3 cup of finely ground corn flour, 7/8 cup of flour, a half cup of sugar, a half cup of unsalted butter,2 eggs, &frac14 cup of raisins, one half ounce of yeast, 1 grated lemon, ½ of a small glass of grappa, a dash of salt, 2 tablespoons of flour for the workspace, 4 tablespoons of lightly sifted confectioner’s sugar.

Place the raisins in tepid water for 10 minutes to soften them. Drain the water and gently wring them with your hands to remove the excess water. Put them in a bowl and add the grappa to “bathe” them for approx 20 minutes. Then drain the grappa and dry them with a very clean kitchen towel.

Sift the wheat and corn flour together with the yeast and salt and place in a bowl. Add the beaten eggs, and the melted butter. Mix with a fork and add the raisins. (Follow this procedure before adding the raisins to make sure they don’t fall to the bottom: lightly dust them with 2 tablespoons of flour). Add the sugar and the grated lemon peel.

Mix until the dough becomes homogenous. Lay the dough out on a lightly floured workspace, and roll it out to a thickness of just less than ½ an inch. Using the rolling pin to help you, and using a knife, cut out long ovals about 2 inches in length.

Place them on a baking sheet, not too close together, and bake in a 350 ° oven for 20 minutes. Once cooled, dust them with the confectioner’s sugar and serve together with your favorite liqueur.

Enjoy these organic, Venetian sweets and please your family and friends with them by bringing antique traditions to your table, just as the Venetians have done for centuries.

By Heather Bettendorf – President, PRIMA Organic Foods ( PRIMAOrganic.com ) – Offering gourmet organic cookies from Italy. Our organic foods include unique organic cookie formulations containing Italian Almond, Venetian Classic, Natural Lemon, and Sunny Vanilla.

Posted in Organic Farming

Tags: baking, Cookie, Easy, foods, learn, organic, recipes, traditions, Venetian

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Discover the Secrets of Traditional Venetian Cookies With Organic Food Baking Recipes

November 25th, 2009

My Health

From the enchanting Venetian lagoon on the Adriatic sea in Italy, when Venice was the center of commerce with Asia from the 13th to the 19th centuries, organic baking traditions were born that are still practiced today by housewives and pastry chefs. Explorers and sailors carried foodstuffs on board the merchant and war galleons that would survive the long voyages in the perilous seas. Among these were sweet treats, simple to make, that in name and taste, reflected their Venetian origins. Not to mention that in those days, the only existing agriculture created organic food; no pesticides or additives were used in foods, except those from mother nature herself.

The Queen of these, and the most famous, is the organic cookie named “Biscotti Baicoli”. Created in the 1700′s, the word “baicoli” is Venetian dialect for sea bass. In fact, their oval, thin, long shape is very similar to the sea bass which inhabit the lagoon. At that time, bakers supplied them to coffee shops, or they were served to house guests along with zabaglione cream, hot chocolate or tea. Still others served them with a sweet Doge’s desert wine, the Venetian Moscato dei Doge.

Today they are considered a delicate, light, yet flavorful organic cookie to be enjoyed by everyone. In fact, almost every child in Venice today knows the poem in Venetian dialect which brags of the goodness of the Baicoli and its Venetian origins.

In the lagoon sits Burano, the fisherman’s island, famous for it’s rows of brightly colored houses. From this tiny island comes the organic cookie “Bussola Buranello”, which translated, means the compass of Burano. Here too, the marine traditions date back centuries. Baked in a shape like a backwards “s” or an outline of a circle, this cookie was a typical Easter treat, kneaded at home by the women of Burano, and then brought to the baker’s for baking. On feast days, it was dipped in holy wine “vin santo”, or in local whites. Packaged, they were placed in the middle of clothes drawers in order to scent them with the delicious aroma characteristic of this cookie.

Still today, considered a genuine and nutritional organic cookie, it is enjoyed in the same manner, or served to children.

Both organic cookies are easy to prepare, with simple organic food ingredients. The recipes follow:

Biscotti Baicoli -

Organic Food Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups flour, ¼ cup melted butter (unsalted), ¼ cup sugar, 1 small glass of milk, one half ounce of yeast

Dissolve the yeast in a small amount of tepid milk in a glass, and then mix it together with ¼ cup of flour. Form a ball and leave it to rest, covered by a cloth, in a warm place until it doubles in volume (approx 30 min).

Mix together the remaining ingredients, starting with the flour and sugar, then the melted butter, and finally the tepid milk. (You may also add a bit of freshy squeezed orange juice for more flavor) Add the leavened dough and knead all together.

Leave the dough in the mixing bowl and place the bowl in a larger bowl of boiling hot water in the oven (turned off), for at least one hour.

Divide the dough in roughly 6 long, oval shapes, each roughly 3 inches in width. Cook in the oven for approx 10 minutes at 300°, and then increase the temperature to 430° until completely cooked (approx 1 hour). Remove from the oven and let it completely cool. Then thinly slice the 6 oval shapes into organic cookies, and put them back in the oven to “toast” for approx 20 min at 120° – 175°.

Dip in hot tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. Or serve with zabaglione cream or a sweet desert wine.

Bussola Buranello -

Organic Food Ingredients: 6 egg yolks, 1 cup butter softened at room temperature, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups flour, a dash of extract (choosed between, vanilla, lemon or anise, the island tradition), a dash of salt.

On a kitchen workspace, form a volcano shape with the flour, and in the middle create a crater where you add the softened butter (not melted).

In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the sugar. Then add this to the butter /flour mixture, and quickly mix /knead with your hands.

Take the dough and create the desired cookie shapes (outline of a circle or backwards “s”) and cook in the oven at 350° until done.

Modern versions add dark chocolate chips, raisins, or substitute a bit of the white flour with coconut flour.

Serve these organic treats at home along with your usual array of organic foods or try them on your friends at your next gathering. Bring to your table a culinary, organic, pastry delight which is centuries old, yet enjoyed every day by Venetians and tourists alike.

By Heather Bettendorf – President, PRIMA Organic Cookies ( http://www.primaorganic.com ) – Offering gourmet organic cookies from Italy. Our unique cookie formulations and combinations include Natural Lemon, Italian Almond, Venetian Classic, and Sunny Vanilla.