I love love love to bake! However, baking in Italy has proven to be a little more challenging that I thought it would be.
The metric system makes no sense whatsoever to me. I mentioned to my host brother that I needed 2 cups of flour, in which he proceeded to get a drinking cup from the cabinet haha. It seems much more simple to measure ingredients using the English measuring system instead of weighing everything, but I assume that the weight is much more precise. I either eyeballed the quantities or used a liquid measuring cup (that had mL and cups listed) to measure both wet and dry ingredients.
Measurements aside, the ingredients here are much different. The first time I tried to bake here I was making chocolate cupcakes with my host brothers. Not knowing that there are so many different "types" of flour here, we used the wrong kind. Each has a different texture "hardness or softness" of the wheat. In addition, baking soda is not a staple ingredient to keep on hand let alone use in recipes. It is more common to use "lievito pane deglia angeli" which I later would discover is more like baking powder, not baking soda. And when making buttercream, we of course needed powdered sugar. However, powdered sugar here is sold in small packets containing maybe a cup or cup and a half each. In order to make the buttercream we needed five packets, which they thought was so excessive haha. The consistency of the powdered sugar is much more fine, and it is even sweeter than powdered sugar in the USA... The buttercream was not the right stiffness, and it was so so so sweet (it was yummy, but wow wayyy sweet). These factors caused the cupcakes to turn out differently than I desired, but the family still liked them!
When baking my *favorite* chocolate chip cookies, I needed Crisco vegetable shortening. (And Hershey's chocolate chips of course are not a thing here, so my mom brought me some to use!)I looked up the Italian equivalent, and it said to use "strutto." Later I found out that strutto is lard. When making the cookies, the youngest boy was tasting the dough, and the older boy scolded him. I proceeded to eat a bite of the dough also, telling the oldest boy that it was fine. He proceeded to tell me that the strutto is not healthy... Okaaaayyy didn't realize we were trying to be healthy? (And i continued to eat more raw cookie dough haha). The cookies turned out really good! But I guess it is uncommon to use strutto...Next time I will opt for butter, but I don't understand how it is healthier than strutto.
Vanilla here is also not common, which is sad to me because I think that vanilla makes everything 100% better! Vanilla is sold in small little vials, containing maybe a teaspoon each. Instead, it is common for the "baking powder" or powdered sugar to be vanilla flavored.
The third time I baked something, it went much more smoothly (third times a charm!) I made Nutella drop cookies, and they were a hit! The recipe called for butter, flour (which I made sure to use type 00, best for baking ccokies and cakes), nutella, powdered sugar, and vanilla. I choose to convert the recipe to grams, and I used the kitchen scale to measure everything. They were delicious, and tasted just like they do when I make them at home.
My Italian families have been enjoying tasting "American" sweets! They always eat the cookies for breakfast, because in Italy a common breakfast food is biscotti and latte (cookies and milk)! This is so opposite than American breakfast, and goes against everything we think breakfast should consist of!
With love and powdered sugar,
The metric system makes no sense whatsoever to me. I mentioned to my host brother that I needed 2 cups of flour, in which he proceeded to get a drinking cup from the cabinet haha. It seems much more simple to measure ingredients using the English measuring system instead of weighing everything, but I assume that the weight is much more precise. I either eyeballed the quantities or used a liquid measuring cup (that had mL and cups listed) to measure both wet and dry ingredients.
Measurements aside, the ingredients here are much different. The first time I tried to bake here I was making chocolate cupcakes with my host brothers. Not knowing that there are so many different "types" of flour here, we used the wrong kind. Each has a different texture "hardness or softness" of the wheat. In addition, baking soda is not a staple ingredient to keep on hand let alone use in recipes. It is more common to use "lievito pane deglia angeli" which I later would discover is more like baking powder, not baking soda. And when making buttercream, we of course needed powdered sugar. However, powdered sugar here is sold in small packets containing maybe a cup or cup and a half each. In order to make the buttercream we needed five packets, which they thought was so excessive haha. The consistency of the powdered sugar is much more fine, and it is even sweeter than powdered sugar in the USA... The buttercream was not the right stiffness, and it was so so so sweet (it was yummy, but wow wayyy sweet). These factors caused the cupcakes to turn out differently than I desired, but the family still liked them!
When baking my *favorite* chocolate chip cookies, I needed Crisco vegetable shortening. (And Hershey's chocolate chips of course are not a thing here, so my mom brought me some to use!)I looked up the Italian equivalent, and it said to use "strutto." Later I found out that strutto is lard. When making the cookies, the youngest boy was tasting the dough, and the older boy scolded him. I proceeded to eat a bite of the dough also, telling the oldest boy that it was fine. He proceeded to tell me that the strutto is not healthy... Okaaaayyy didn't realize we were trying to be healthy? (And i continued to eat more raw cookie dough haha). The cookies turned out really good! But I guess it is uncommon to use strutto...Next time I will opt for butter, but I don't understand how it is healthier than strutto.
Vanilla here is also not common, which is sad to me because I think that vanilla makes everything 100% better! Vanilla is sold in small little vials, containing maybe a teaspoon each. Instead, it is common for the "baking powder" or powdered sugar to be vanilla flavored.
The third time I baked something, it went much more smoothly (third times a charm!) I made Nutella drop cookies, and they were a hit! The recipe called for butter, flour (which I made sure to use type 00, best for baking ccokies and cakes), nutella, powdered sugar, and vanilla. I choose to convert the recipe to grams, and I used the kitchen scale to measure everything. They were delicious, and tasted just like they do when I make them at home.
With love and powdered sugar,
No comments :
Post a Comment