I'm house and dog sitting for friends for two weeks. My favourite place to hang out is their backyard. A gazebo, pretty fairy lights, and a comfy chair.
Earlier tonight I was enjoying a glass of wine, a good book and the dog at my feet.
The book, Summer by the Sea by Susan Wiggs is an easy summer beach read. Light and fluffy, it's the story of star-crossed childhood loves. I'm only half way through but I'm pretty sure girl will end up with boy. (If they don't then the book will surprise me). While I am enjoying the book and I will read more by the same author, what's got me about the book so far is the delicious sounding recipes. The girl, Rosa owns an Italian restaurant by the sea hence between chapters there are Italian recipes. I shouldn't have been reading the book before dinner. The recipes just made me hungry.
I can't pronounce this...Caimbellone...but it has lemon in it. Lemon, I like. A lot. I had to stop reading to bake.
Yep, I put the book down, delayed dinner and baked. Lucky for me, Andrea and Sean had all the ingredients in their pantry. (I need to go grocery shopping and restock).
It's an easy recipe. But messy. Starting with 4 cups of flour in a mound on a board. I skipped the board and just used the (clean) counter top. Then alternately add the wet and dry ingredients, mixing and kneading with your hands. Told you it's messy.
The recipe said to add extra flour as needed. I found I needed to add 1/2 a cup of flour for every 1/2 cup of liquid. So I added 1 cup of milk in 1/4 cup increments, alternating with a 1/4 cup of flour. Same with the oil.
It was quick to make. The dough didn't require a lot of kneading, the hardest part was getting the flour amount correct. I formed the dough into two fat rings as instructed, next time I'd braid the two rings. Just to make them prettier.
The kitchen smelled awesome while the rings were baking. The dog pretty much sat in front of the oven. Waiting the 40 minutes for the Ciambellone to bake was torture. Although I did eat dinner and wash up in that time.
Then I had a huge slice of warm ciambellone straight out of the oven. It's pretty good. Would be better with a cup of coffee for breakfast. If I only I knew how to operate Sean's fancy coffee machine. Or if I had a bottle of Frangelico so I could make the Caffe Frangelico. Frangelico is hazelnut. Hazelnut, I like. A lot. Lemon (in the Ciambellone) and hazelnut (in the Caffe Frangelico) together? Yes please. Yum.
All the recipe from Summer by the Sea are here.