Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too: Eating to Be Sexy, Fit, and Fabulous! (31 page)

Baklava and Biscotti

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Cranberry Cornmeal Cookies

M a k e s a b o u t 3 d o z e n

√These satisfying cookies have a sparkling crunch from the cornmeal and a tart chewiness from the dried cranberries.

3⁄4 pound unsalted butter, at room

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

temperature

1 cup cornmeal

11⁄2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups dried cranberries

1.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and cream them together until fluffy using a stand or handheld mixer.

2.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.

Beat in the vanilla.

3.
In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, mixing just until combined. Stir in the cranberries.

4.
Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat baking mat. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and flatten them. Place them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart.

5.
Bake until the cookies are golden brown, 8–10 minutes. Watch them and be sure not to overbrown. They should be crispy but not dried out. Cool 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cookies to a wire cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Almond Biscotti

M a k e s a b o u t 3 d o z e n

√Biscotti is among the most versatile of cookies. Perfect with morning coffee, afternoon coffee or tea, or after dinner with coffee or a
digestivo
, biscotti isn’t too sweet, is pleasingly crunchy, and is shaped perfectly for dipping. Don’t be put off by the fact that you have to bake this twice—once for the loaf, once for the slices. This is still easier than dropping two dozen globs of sticky dough one at a time from a spoon. Try it!

21⁄4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon almond extract

13⁄4 cups sugar

7 ounces whole almonds with skins

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon orange flower water

1 teaspoon baking powder

(optional, available in Middle

11⁄2 teaspoons orange zest

Eastern grocery stores)

3 eggs

3 egg yolks (reserve egg whites for

another use)

1.
Preheat the oven to 325°F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and orange zest. Set aside.

2.
In another large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, egg yolks, and almond extract. Mix thoroughly with a fork or whisk. Stir in the almonds and orange flower water, if using.

3.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and combine, stirring with a wooden spoon, just until the dough comes together.

Don’t overmix.

4.
On a large baking sheet, form the dough into two loaves, about 4 inches by 10 inches each. Bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned. Let the biscotti loaves cool. When they are just
Baklava and Biscotti

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slightly warm, slice them with a sharp serrated knife into 1⁄2-inch slices.

5.
Lower the oven temperature to 300°F. Put the slices, cut sides up so they lie flat, back on the baking sheet. Bake for 15

minutes, or until the slices are golden and dry. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Lavender Shortbread

M a k e s a b o u t 3 d o z e n

√This unusual lavender-scented cookie gives shortbread an exotic twist. You can find dried lavender flowers in the bulk herb section of specialty stores and co-op health food stores, or grow it yourself in your herb garden. The scent of lavender is sooth-ing and relaxing. This is a fun recipe to do with kids because it is easy, quick, and you get to use cookie cutters!

1⁄2 pound unsalted butter, at room

Pinch of salt

temperature

2 tablespoons dried lavender

1⁄2 cup sugar

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour,

plus more for dusting

1.
Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until combined using a stand or handheld mixer. Add the flour and salt, and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles wet sand.

2.
Add the lavender and mix just until the dough starts to come together.

3.
Turn out the dough onto a flour-dusted pastry board or clean countertop and gather it into a mass. Roll it out so that it is about 1⁄4 inch thick. Cut it out with small cookie cutters.

4.
Carefully move the cookies with a metal spatula onto a Silpat- or parchment-covered baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

5.
Preheat the oven to 275°F. Bake the chilled cookies until they are crisp and dry, 20–25 minutes. Remove from the baking sheet after five minutes and cool on a wire cooling rack.

Baklava and Biscotti

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French Almond Wafers

M a k e s 1 d o z e n

√These delicate cookies use ground almonds instead of flour, so they have a lacy texture and that perfect almond flavor. This is a very simple cookie without any flavoring other than the almonds. You can pipe whipped cream inside the cookies just before serving, but they are good without it, too. Serve them with sherry, champagne, or little glass dishes of fruit salad. They also go well with gelato, of course. (What doesn’t?)

4 ounces blanched almonds

1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose

sugar

flour

1⁄4 pound unsalted butter, at room

2 tablespoons milk

temperature

1.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grind the almonds in a blender or spice grinder until they are very fine.

2.
Put all the ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat.

Stir gently until the butter is melted and everything is fully incorporated.

3.
Remove from the heat and scoop spoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto a Silpat- or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 5–8 minutes, or until barely golden brown. Turn each wafer over with a metal spatula. Return to the oven and bake an additional 5 minutes, or until well browned.

4.
Let the wafers cool for 2 minutes. Then carefully roll each wafer around a form into a tube. You can use 1⁄2-inch wooden dowels or any other cylindrical form you can find; or roll them into a cone shape, or just leave them flat.

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Socca

S e r v e s 4

√French street food, socca is a kind of fried bread made from chickpea flour. It can also be cooked into a porridge, chilled, sliced, and fried like polenta, but in this recipe, you ladle the batter into a pan and fry it like a pancake. Serve it plain or with salad, olives, and cheese for a light lunch.

11⁄2 cups chickpea flour

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

2 cups water

1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt

2⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1.
Mix all the ingredients except 1⁄3 cup of the extra-virgin olive oil together in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel and let the batter rest for 1 hour.

2.
Heat an 8-inch nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat.

Add 1 tablespoon of the remaining olive oil. When it is hot, ladle in 1⁄4 cup of the batter. Roll it around with the ladle to spread it thinly over the bottom of the pan, as you would do when cooking a crepe. Cook until brown and crispy on the edges, 5–7

minutes.

3.
Repeat with the remaining batter, adding a tablespoon (or less) of olive oil before each new addition of batter.

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√ Frozen Desserts

All over Europe, especially in the cities, you can find gelato stands—Italy’s answer to ice cream. In the early evening, everybody walking the streets seems to flock to them. There is something lovely about strolling through the Mediterranean at dusk with a scoop of flavorful gelato. You can now buy gelato from vendors in many cities in the United States, too. In the Mediterranean, most women don’t make gelato themselves at home, but if you have an ice-cream maker, you can make it pretty easily.

You can also make sorbetto, the Italian version of sorbet, which is much lower in fat because it contains no egg yolks, cream, or milk. Sorbetto is a good dessert. In its citrus incarnation, it makes an excellent palate cleanser between courses during a formal dinner.

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Chocolate Gelato

M a k e s 3 c u p s

√Gelato can come in any flavor imaginable, but for chocolate lovers, this is Price’s basic, beautiful, smooth, creamy recipe for gelato that will give you everything you desire when you crave chocolate. Serve it with any of the cookies in the previous section and you’ve got a very special dessert.

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

3 egg yolks (reserve whites for another

powder

use)

1⁄2 cup minus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

21⁄2 cups milk

1.
Combine the cocoa powder and half the sugar in a small bowl. Stir in just enough milk to make a paste.

2.
Place the rest of the milk in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.

Slowly pour about 1⁄4 cup hot milk into the paste, whisking constantly.

3.
Stir the paste back into the boiled milk and continue cooking over low heat. Simmer for 5–7 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from the heat.

4.
Beat together the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until pale. Add just a few tablespoons of the hot milk mixture to the yolks while beating. Then add the yolk mixture to the hot milk mixture, beating constantly.

5.
Return the pan to the heat and cook over medium until the temperature reaches 185ºF (use a candy thermometer clipped to the side of the saucepan). Remove from the heat.

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6.
Strain the mixture into a large bowl using a fine-mesh strainer. Stir in the vanilla extract. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

7.
Freeze in your ice-cream machine according to the machine’s directions. Store in the freezer.

Mediterranean Women Stay Slim, Too

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Coconut Sorbetto

M a k e s a b o u t 3 c u p s

√This sorbet tastes creamy because of the coconut milk but also tangy and exotic because of the lime juice. It is very easy to make and will impress people when they discover you made it yourself. The coconut makes this sorbetto rich, so you need only a small scoop to get your fill.

One 14- or 15-ounce can cream of

3⁄4 cup water

coconut

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime

Two 13.5-ounce cans coconut milk

juice

3⁄4 cups simple syrup (3⁄4 cup water

and 3⁄4 cup sugar boiled together

until sugar dissolves)

1.
Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well with a hand blender.

2.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

3.
Freeze in your ice-cream machine according to the machine’s directions. Store in the freezer.

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√ Cakes, Custards, and Creams

Baking doesn’t have to be hard, although it can be more important to measure ingredients exactly when baking than when, say, making a pot of soup. Making a cake for your family is a real gift, so try one of these recipes if you have a free afternoon. Exacting measurements also apply to making custards and creams.

Popular desserts in the Mediterranean include panna cotta and zabaglione in Italy, crème brûlée in France, flan in Spain, rice pudding and Turkish custard on the Mediterranean’s eastern shore, and millet porridge from North Africa.

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Crema Catalana

S e r v e s 6

√This creamy, rich custard is the Spanish version of crème brûlée. Custard is a popular dessert in Spain. Flavorful and full of protein and calcium, these little dishes of custard topped with a thin brown-sugar crust make the perfect small, elegant dessert.

11⁄2 cups milk

8 egg yolks (reserve whites for another

11⁄2 cups cream

use)

Freshly grated zest from 4 oranges

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose

Freshly grated zest from 2 lemons

flour

1⁄2 vanilla bean

6 teaspoons fine granulated sugar for

1 cinnamon stick

topping

1⁄2 cup sugar

1.
Combine the milk, cream, orange and lemon zests, the vanilla bean (scrape the seeds into the milk mixture with a sharp knife first, then drop in the pod), and the cinnamon stick together in a large saucepan. Place over medium heat and warm the mixture until it almost simmers. Don’t let it boil. Cook without boiling until the mixture begins to thicken, about 30 minutes.

2.
In a bowl, whisk the sugar and egg yolks together. Stir in the flour.

3.
While whisking the yolk mixture constantly, very slowly add about 1⁄2 cup of the hot milk mixture in a small, steady stream.