Skip to main content

Featured

Arriving, Adjusting, Remembering - A Photograph, a Sausage Roll and the Slow Work of Belonging.

Some places stay with you long after you have left, and some recipes carry more than flavours. They carry place, memory, and the long journey of becoming. Our first home in Australia was shared with mamma's sister and her family, all under one roof. She had migrated in the late fifties, married and started a family in this home.  It was a modest weatherboard house, close to the school, full of voices, routines, and the quiet negotiations of a newly arrived family finding their footing. As a child, it felt busy and comforting all at once. That house is still there. Every time I pass it, I slow down and picture us playing in the front yard. And just behind it, further down the same street, sits papa`s current home of care. There’s something quietly moving about that - the place where his life in Australia began, with another chapter unfolding just behind it.  With migration, the past has a way of staying close, but what is sad is that papa`  doesn't remember. We arrive...
Read more

Lemon Ciambella

 


This ring cake called ciambella is an Italian breakfast favourite, and can be flavoured whichever way you like it. Vanilla and chocolate swirled or simply flavoured with any citrus you have.  This one has been scented with meyer lemons that are currently profusely growing on my little tree. 

I found myself picking these lemons earlier than I would normally have done; the branches were proving too heavy for this little tree. Meyer lemons normally fully ripen to a deeper yellow and sweeter in taste, but still lovely and super fragrant if picked earlier.  A basket has been placed at my front gate for the neighbours to help themselves and the tree, although still quite full is lighter and happier.


As promised, I share this slightly modified recipe that evolved from the need to introduce some gluten free cakes for my husbands new dietary regime.  Gluten free flour is new to my cooking and one that has pleasantly surprised me. In fact I have also used it in vegan cakes, making them less dense and lighter.  The two gluten free flours I recommend are Fioreglut by Caputo - ideal for bread, pizza and sweets; and for cakes, I found White Wings gluten free flour achieves favourable results. 


Lemon Ciambella

This Italian ring cake recipe by Silvia Colloca uses a basic yoghurt and olive oil batter. It makes a great base for any flavours.  I replaced the vanilla bean with grated lemon zest and regular self-raising flour with the gluten free.  A light glaze using the juices of one lemon is optional but highly recommended.

4 eggs

180 g (3/4 cup) caster sugar

grated zest of 2 organic lemons 

80 ml (1/3 cup) olive oil

140 g (1/2 cup) Greek yoghurt

250 g (1 2/3 cups) White Wings gluten free self-raising flour, sifted


Preheat oven to 180 C and grease and flour a ring tin.

Make the batter by whipping the eggs and sugar in a bowl until fluffy. Mix the zest of two lemons, oil and yoghurt, then slowly adding the flour until combined, taking care not to overmix.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool, mix 6 tablespoons of icing (confectioners) sugar and the juice of one lemon a bit at a time until you achieve a very runny glaze. Drizzle over cake and allow to set if you can resist waiting before slicing into it.

This lemon ciambella is super soft and fragrant. You wouldn't know it was gluten free. 

Enjoy!


Comments

Post a Comment