HMerlitti's blog

The recipe provides an icing on the biscotti.   Wonderful.   Sounds good.    But in my application the cold biscotti absorbs the icing.   The icing is not cold but it is warm.   Is there something I should add to it??    I want the frosting to cake and be visible on the outside of the biscotti.

Frosting
1 cup confectionary sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons milk
2 drops of lemon juice
2 drops of extract (of your choice)
1 tablespoon orange juice
Zest of the orange

Sorry all, The "Keyword" does not get printed in the post.   I put "Carol Field in the Italian Baker" in the Keyword so you would know the source of the reference.  Page 36 if you have the book.

She says, "Never sift flour for bread; always for pastries and cookies."   How does one sift??  Would an ordinary strainer do or do you need a flour sifter??

Secondly, what are we sifting for?   Do we expect lumps in the flour or are we adding air??

Why do we do this??

I went to the local Italian store and bought 5 pound of Antimo Caputo (from Naples) flour.   First of all, it is expensive.  I think it was $5 for 4 pounds or was it $15 for 5 pounds, I do not remember.   I didn't care because I wanted to try it.

I made several 1 pound portions, used two and froze the others in separate oiled freezer bags.

I made two pizzas.   One in the oven on a 1" granite stone properly brought to the highest temperature my oven could handle, (550 degrees according to the oven gauge readout) and the other on the grill, supposedly 650 degrees according its temp readout.   The benefit of the grill is that it cooks from the bottom so hot that the whole slice of pizza stays crisp and stiff.

Regarding the taste, They both tasted the same.  But different from pizzas made with other flours, this pizza was very chewy.   IMHO this was neither a good think or a bad think, just different.  But I could see how some pizza lovers could rave about it or not like it becaues it is too chewy.  

Any of you have a comment ???

Can someone find a monistery in Italy with a bakery that needs to be restored. ??

Who would like to go with me ??