There is a part of me that always dreams of creating those beautiful and perfect modern tarts and cakes that we see everyday on Instagram or in sophisticated cookbooks. When I was in Italy recently purchased cookbooks by Italian and European pastry chefs, books that I couldn’t get here. Silvia Brunzin, Valerio Barralis, Maurizio Santin, Maja Vase, and Iginio Massari were the authors of my new collection. I had to exert some restraint because if it hadn’t been for the airline luggage weight limit, I would have bought many more! I also bought some silicon molds and a tall perforated ring for my ..read more

I am back! It’s been a long couple of months, busy with work, and some significant changes in my career. But I also had the pleasure to visit my home country, and while there, I went to one of my absolute favorite places in the world: South Tyrol. Officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, South Tyrol is an autonomous province in Northern Italy, one of the two that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. Its history is complicated and fascinating, and the result is that the population there speaks German as their first language, followed by Italian. They a ..read more

Carrot cake is an interesting dessert. In Italy we eat it without nuts or dried fruit, and certainly don’t frost it with cream cheese frosting, but dust one carrot cake layer with confectioners’ sugar. The recipe that I adapted here was originally posted on Instagram by Victoria @chocolat_et_bredalas. She shared her recipe as a gift, and what a gift it was! What attracted me was its loaf shape, and the cranberries instead of raisins. For the icing, I decided to use white chocolate, with vegetable oil, pistachios and more cranberries. I like the shiny look and the contrast of the sweet white c ..read more

I confess, after months of seeing Valrhona Chocolate in my feeds, a couple of weeks ago I decided to give it a go. I ordered interesting flavors, like Dulcey chocolate, Yuzu and Raspberry Inspirations to name a few. Motivated by having these options in my fridge, I started thinking about creating new desserts, and these tartlets are one of them. Please note that, if you can’t get – or aren’t interested in getting – this specialty chocolate, you can definitely substitute it with white chocolate, and you’ll be absolutely fine. When I was thinking about these tartlets, I knew I wanted to use som ..read more

Years ago, when watching Martha Stewart making risotto, I remember screaming “No, Martha, No!” to the TV, when I saw her using olive oil. For an Italian, and a Northern Italian specifically, using olive oil instead of butter when making risotto is a sacrilege. I cannot even begin to tell you how her risotto came out, so soupy and not at all the creamy dish that we Italians enjoy and perfected. So, every time I decide to bake a classic from another country, including an American one, I picture all these people screaming at the computer, “No, Simona, No!” It might be the case, today, for my ver ..read more

How many chocolate chip recipes can you try? Apparently, quite a lot. I am always asked for chocolate chip cookies by my kids, especially when my daughter comes back from college. And I get tired of using the same trite recipes. So Instagram, once again, came to my rescue. The awarded Pastry Chef Karim Bourgi @karim.bourgi provided a wonderful and easy recipe on one of his posts. It’s rich in chocolate and nuts – even if I omitted the hazelnuts and doubled the chocolate. It’s also very quick to make. Today, working from home during a blizzard, I was able to prepare and bake 24 cookies in 45 m ..read more

When I used the sweet dough for the Tart flan, I kew I would use it again. The inspiration was Tiramisu, the typical Italian dessert. Here I decided to add some instant coffee to create a coffee crust. I then made a milk chocolate ganache to fill it, insert a light coffee chiffon cake layer, and covered it all with a coffee mousse. The tart came out absolutely delicious and with different textures, that I believe enrich the whole experience. ENJOY! Pin Print Gluten-free Coffee Tart with Milk Chocolate Ganache and Coffee Mousse 0 from 0 votes Recipe by Simona Gluten-free Course: RecipesDiff ..read more

I think I cracked the code!!! As I anticipated in my Tarte Tatin post, this gluten-free puff pastry did work perfectly to create beautiful cannoncini – or little cream horns. In Milan, where I grew up, there was a bakery, Supino, that made the most beautiful and delicious cannoncini. Unfortunately it closed its doors in 2022. Cannoncini are, literally, little cannons, filled with the most luscious vanilla pastry cream. To make these little horns, I used mini cannoli molds, but you can create a mold with aluminum foil as well. Cut a piece of aluminum foil 12 inch wide, and fold it in half to m ..read more

In Italy oranges are mostly produced in Sicily. So it will be no surprise to learn that this soft orange cake is typical of the traditional Sicilian cuisine, or rather Palermitan. This is a simple and fragrant dessert, prepared with a whole pureed orange – with all its peel. This cake is prepared and baked in less than an hour. It can also be easily transformed into a dairy free version, substituting the whole milk with plant based creamer. Your house and the whole neighborhood will be pervaded by an incredible scent of oranges! ENJOY! Pin Print Gluten-free Pan D’arancio – Orange Sicilian ..read more

In the last few months I had seen many tart flans from French pastry chefs on Instagram. They are simple tart crusts with a flan baked inside. I had seen them with vanilla flans and chocolate flans, but this caught my eye, since it added another layer and texture, with baked chocolate chip and pecan cookie dough. The ingredients were posted @gourmandisedezaza, and as soon as I translated them from French, I was working on it. This crust has a little bit of almond flour which gives it a wonderful texture – I will use it again in my baking. The filling is a vanilla pastry cream, topped by piece ..read more