Dry Fig and Almond Slice Istrian Recipe

December 10, 2024 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, Appetizers, Autumnal dish, Autumnal recipe, bite-sized nibbles, Canapés, Christmas, dessert, Easy recipe, festive dessert, festive dish, festive sweet things, Finger food, Healthy, Istrian cuisine, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, Rustic dish, simple recipe, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Small bites, Snacks, Starters, sweet finger food, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things, Vegan, Winter recipe

Dry fig and almond slice is a sweet treat made with soft, sticky and delicious dried figs paste mixed with finely chopped nuts that is then formed into a log or oblong shape, and then dried until firm enough to slice.It is perfect to get the festivities rolling, slice it up and serve with assorted cheeses and crackers or as a sweet treat with coffee or tea, Brandy, Dark rum or some kind of sweet wine at the end of the meal. This dried fig delight contains no flour, so it is a fantastic gluten free option.

It is very popular and well known in the South of Italy where it is known as Lonzino di fico (loin of figs for its shape resembling pork loin) or as Salame di fichi (fig “salami”).

It used to be recurrently made in the households in Slovenian Istra where it is referred as Figov Hlebček, literally meaning Fig Loaf, as it is shaped into oblong like a loaf of bread.

This fig loaf was traditionally wrapped in bay leaves and allow to dry in the sun for at least a week. It used to be made straight after grape picking season using a bit of Must, which is a freshly crushed grape juice (from the Latin vinum mustum, meaning young wine) and a first step in winemaking.

To make this fig loaf Istrian style you would only use dried figs, raisins and almonds. Nothing is stopping you to play with the ingredients and make your own version of it, perhaps using different types of nuts like walnuts, pistachios, and a different variety of dried fruit like dried apricots, dates or similar.

Recipe

Ingredients

250g dried figs, hard stalk removed, roughly chopped (for this recipe Turkish or Calymirna dried figs are the best)
50g raisins
100g peeled or unpeeled almond, (can use walnuts instead)
½ Tbsp dark rum, Brandy, Italian sweet Marsala wine, Muscat sweet wine or other type of sweet wine, optional

Method

Place raisins in a small bowl and completely cover with warm water.

If you wish, you can add ½ Tbsp of dark rum, Brandy, Marsala or Muscat sweet wine or other type of sweet wine.

Leave to soak and plump up for at least 15 minutes, or until needed.

Place the almonds, or walnuts, in a food processor and pulse until most are finely chopped. Remove and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Put roughly chopped dried figs and soaked raisins into a food processor and whizz until they form a sticky paste (if the paste does not quite come together, add a splash of warm water).

Remove and transfer fig paste into the mixing bowl together with chopped nuts.

Mix well and shape the fig and nut mixture into a sausage/log or loaf. You can make thicker or thinner log according to the size slices you want.

Allow to dry, uncovered, in the fridge or a dry place (I put mine in a airing cabinet) for up to a week.

It should become firm and somewhat dried out but not completely hard.

Slice and serve alongside your favourite selection of cheeses or as a sweet treat/dessert at the end of the meal with a coffee or tea or a glass of sweet wine, Rum or Brandy.

Just a thought

Dried fig and almonds slice will keep in a cool place for up to two months.

This dried fig delight also makes a lovely and thoughtful give away present for your foodie friends and family. Wrap and tie in a baking parchment, fig leaves or bay leaves.

You can shape fig and nut mixture into small balls and have them as a healthy snack when the sugar levels gets a bit low.

Ricotta or Curd Cheese Strudel Recipe

Beans and Sardines

January 25, 2023 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, breakfast, Central European recipes, dessert, Eastern European recipes, easy baking, Easy recipe, Istrian cuisine, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, Mitteleuropean cuisine, Mitteleuropean food, Mitteleuropean recipes, pudding, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, Snacks, sweet course, sweet finger food, sweet nibbles, Sweet Things

Ricotta cheese strudel is a variation of a traditional, well known and quintessentially Viennese Apple Strudel, it is a very scrumptious dessert, made with very thin, elastic pastry, and the filling contains ricotta or curd cheese, sugar, vanilla bean extract, eggs yolks, grated lemon zest and raisins soaked in dark rum, grappa or just lukewarm water.

Apple strudel was first mentioned in 1696, and later conquered all the countries that were once ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and curd cheese strudel is as popular and traditional in Austria as the famous Apple strudel.

All three types of strudels (apple, curd cheese and cherry) are very much loved in the North Adriatic, in Slovenian Istra, where I come from, and in the neighbouring city of Trieste, in Italy, and part of its province.

Ricotta strudel is regularly and traditionally baked with curd cheese (called skuta in Slovenian) in local households, and sometimes, if you are lucky enough, you might find it in more informal family run restaurants (skutin štrudelj or skutin zavitek).

This very delicious sweet treat really takes me back to my childhood, not only my mother frequently baked it, we also had it for school dinner as a pudding, and it did go down a treat.

I am sharing here my mother's recipe for ricotta strudel, this slightly off the beaten track recipe, made with home made pastry, but if you are too daunted by the idea of making your own dough, or simply do not have time to make it, you can still indulge yourself, and cut corners a bit by using store bought ready made pastry.

Recipe

Ingredients

Will make two separate strudels.

You can use store bought ready made puff pastry, shortcrust or filo pastry.

Ingredients for home-made strudel dough

250g all purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp neutral tasting vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
sea salt, a pinch
60ml lukewarm water, or as needed

Ingredients for ricotta or curd cheese filling

500g ricotta or curd cheese
100g raisins
2 egg yolks
80g caster sugar (I recommend 100g of sugar if using curd cheese as more acidic compared to ricotta)
1 ½ vanilla bean extract
1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest
3 Tbsp dark rum, grappa or lukewarm water (for soaking the raisins)
generous knob of butter, melted (for brushing the strudels before baking them)

Method

Before starting with the recipe, place the raisins in a small bowl, pour dark rum, grappa or lukewarm water over them, and let them soak and plump up for about 30 minutes (you can leave them to soak for longer or overnight).

To make the dough

Sift the flour in a big mixing bowl and make a well.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix slightly beaten egg, oil, vinegar or lemon juice, (the acidity will help to relax gluten in the flour making the dough more stretchy) a pinch of sea salt, and lukewarm water. Pour the mixture into a flour well.

With the fork, stir the mixture with the flour until well combined. Only if the mixture is very wet and sticky, add a little bit of flour at a time, until the dough comes nicely together, then work the dough with your hands.

Transfer the dough on a lightly floured working surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until nice and smooth.

After this time, the dough should be moist and elastic and not sticky. Add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky to knead.

In order to further encourage the development of the gluten, resulting in a very elastic dough, slam the dough onto the working surface a few times.

Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it in a clean bowl, previously brushed with oil.

Cover the bowl with cling film and let the dough rest for about 30-60 minutes at room temperature (strudel dough has no yeast, so do not expect the dough to rise or double in size, it needs to rest for gluten to relax).

To make the filling

Place ricotta or curd cheese in a fairly large bowl and stir.

Add caster sugar, vanilla bean extract, egg yolks, grated lemon zest and mix well all the ingredients.

Drain the raisins, remove excess liquid, add to the mixture.

Set aside for later use.

Preheat the oven to 190C static or equivalent.

Divide the dough in half to make two separate strudels (easier to work with).

Place half of the dough on a clean and lightly floured table cloth. Flour the rolling pin and start rolling out the dough. While rolling, to prevent sticking, flour the dough and the surface every now and then.

When the dough reaches about 20 cm in diameter pick it up and keep stretching it. The best way to do so is to use the back of your hands, and in particular the knuckles, but make sure you remove any sharp jewellery first.

When the dough becomes difficult to handle as it becomes bigger and thinner, place it on a lightly floured tablecloth.

With your hands (tip of the fingers) keep stretching gently the dough on the tablecloth to paper thin consistency, from the inside to the outside working your way round the sheet of dough.Keep stretching until the sheet of dough starts to look almost translucent and you will be able to see a pattern of your tablecloth through it.You should end up with a thin sheet of dough stretched more or less into a rectangular shape with a diameter of approximately 40 cm which will fit into a standard 40 cm baking tray.

If you notice that the edges are still a bit thick, stretch them further very gently, or cut them off. If you leave the edges thick, when rolling the strudel, they will form quite a thick layer at the very centre of the strudel risking to remain slightly underbaked.

Place and spoon evenly half of the ricotta mixture (you will use the other half of the mixture to make a second strudel) over ¾ of the dough sheet leaving about 2-3cm to the edge.

Fold in the side ends of the sheet to prevent filling coming out during rolling.

Using the tablecloth to help you, roll the dough all the way and roll it directly onto a sheet of baking parchment, seam side down.Transfer very gently the baking parchment with the rolled strudel on a baking tray.

Repeat the process with the other half of the dough to make a second strudel.

Brush both strudels with a bit of melted butter.

Bake in the preheated oven on the middle shelf for about 40-45 minutes, or until the strudel crust turns nice golden in colour.

Take it out of the oven and let it cool a bit.

Serve it slightly warm or at room temperature.

Dust with regular icing sugar or vanilla icing sugar, cut into slices and serve it on its own or with custard.

Just a thought

You can make the strudel dough ahead and keep it refrigerated in an airtight container for up to two days. Before using the dough take it out of the fridge allowing it to come to a room temperature.

Ricotta strudel is best eaten the day is made. You can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days or overnight on the counter.

You can make a less traditional version of this strudel and replace raisins for chocolate chips in the ricotta filling.

Wine suggestion

Colli Orientali del Friuli Verduzzo Sottozona Cialla DOC “Verduzzo di Cialla” 2017 - Ronchi di Cialla

Apple Strudel with home made pastry Recipe

Beans and Sardines

November 05, 2021 by tina oblak in Adriatic Recipe, baked dish, baking, breakfast, Central European recipes, dessert, Eastern European recipes, Istrian cuisine, Istrian dish, Istrian food, Istrian gastronomy, Mitteleuropean recipes, pudding, recipe from Northern Ital, Rustic dish, Slovenian cuisine, Slovenian food, Slovenian gastronomy, sweet course, Sweet Things

Apple strudel is a traditional Viennese dessert, made of very thin elastic pastry, and the filling contains sliced apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins (soaked in dark rum), lemon zest, lemon juice and bread crumbs. This popular pastry can also be found in the rest of Austria, Bavaria, Czech Republic, Northern Italy, and in many other countries in Europe that were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It is believed that strudel originated from baklava, a very famous Turkish pastry based dessert, that came to Austria with the Ottoman's Empire and through Hungarian cuisine.

Records show that Strudel was first named in 1696 and gained popularity after it was served to Empress Maria Theresia who was the ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the only women to hold the position.

In Slovenia and in coastal Istria, areas that also once belonged to Austro-Hungarian Empire, apple strudel became, and today still is, a very well known sweet treat. It has gained such a high level of popularity that it is almost considered a national dessert. During autumn and winter months, this typical and very much loved dessert would be baked on a regular basis up and down the country, with little variations, and no Sunday roast lunch could be completed without a slice of strudel, dusted, of course, with a generous amount of icing sugar. When this task was left for us children, there would be so much icing sugar on the top that you could hardly see what type of dessert was hiding underneath it. Some things just never change...this is what happens when I leave my 11 year old son with the icing sugar task!

Apple strudel in Slovenia is called Jabolčni štrudelj or Jabolčni zavitek while along the coast of Northwest Istria, where the informal Istrian dialect is also spoken, it can be referred to as Strucolo de pomi.

Strudel made with apples is by far the most popular but in the North Adriatic two variations of strudel have been created and are also very well liked, strudel filled with ricotta cheese filling and strudel with cherries.

In my family we all knew when it was weekend, as apple strudel, this warming autumnal pudding, would be in the oven, and the aromas of apples and cinnamon would travel around the house. This dessert is not just part of my childhood but part of my adulthood as well. It has been the most frequently baked dessert by my mum and even today my friends and family cannot get enough of it. Now that I live abroad it is even more special, and it really does take me right back home to my childhood, and my mum's kitchen.

Apple strudel is traditionally served warm, dusted with regular icing sugar or vanilla floured icing sugar, and when accompanied with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or vanilla sauce, this rustic pudding soon turns into a complete and very elegant dessert.

This recipe for apple strudel is made with home made pastry, however you can still indulge yourself and cut corners a bit by using a store bought ready made puff pastry, in which case only half the amount of apple filling is enough

Apples can be sliced or coarsely grated and lightly toasted walnuts can replace pine kernels.

In this recipe I will indicate which apples are appropriate to use for apple strudel, however, I have never used specific type of apples and that is simply because I always bake apple strudel when apples are in season and abundant in nature. Apples would be generously given from neighbours and friends with fruit orchards or apple trees in their gardens, I just make sure I taste them and pick a mixture of sweet and tart apples.

Ingredients

Serves 10-12

Dough

250g all purpose flour or bread flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp neutral tasting vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
sea salt, a pinch
50ml-60ml lukewarm water, or as needed

Apple Filling

1kg apples, peeled, cored, quartered and sliced (sweet-tart apples like MacIntosh and Gala in combination) Bramley
1 unwaxed lemon, grated zest and juice (grate lemon zest first and then squeeze the lemon juice, trying to do it the other way round might prove a tricky task)
1 Tsp ground cinnamon
30g pine nut kernels, slightly toasted (can use walnuts)
50g raisins or sultanas
3 Tbsp dark rum or lukewarm water (for soaking the raisins)
60g dry fine breadcrumbs
20g unsalted butter plus extra for brushing
80g caster sugar
icing sugar for dusting

Method

To make the dough

Place the flour in a big mixing bowl and make a well.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix slightly beaten egg, oil, vinegar or lemon juice, (the acidity will help to relax gluten in the flour making the dough more stretchy) a pinch of sea salt and lukewarm water. Pour the mixture into a flour well.

With the fork, stir the mixture with the flour until well combined. Add a little bit of flour at a time, until the dough comes nicely together, then work the dough with your hands.

Transfer the dough on a lightly floured working surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until nice and smooth.

After this time, the dough should be moist and elastic and not sticky. Add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky to knead.

In order to further encourage the development of the gluten, resulting in a very elastic dough, slam the dough onto the working surface a few times.

Shape the dough into a smooth ball and place it in a clean bowl, previously brushed with oil.

Cover the bowl with cling film and let the dough rest for about 1 hour at room temperature.

To make the filling

In a small pan, place pine nuts and toast them on a medium-low heat for a few minutes until golden-light brown in colour. Remove from the heat, cool and set aside.

In another pan melt the butter over medium-low heat. When the butter is melted add breadcrumbs, toast them, stirring constantly until golden-brown in colour. Remove from the heat, cool and set aside.

In a small bowl, place raisins or sultanas, add dark rum (traditionally used) or lukewarm water. Leave them to soak and plump up for at least 15 minutes, or until you need them.

Peel, core, quarter and slice the apples. Place sliced apples in a bowl, pour lemon juice over them, toss and mix well. The lemon juice will prevent apples from oxygenating and turning brown.

Add lemon zest, roasted pine nuts, breadcrumbs mixture, soaked raisins or sultanas (squeeze out excess rum or water), sugar and cinnamon. Mix well to incorporate all the ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 200C static or equivalent.

Place the dough on a clean and lightly floured table cloth. Flour the rolling pin and start rolling out the dough. While rolling, to prevent sticking, flour the dough and the surface every now and then.

When the dough reaches about 20 cm in diameter pick it up and keep stretching it. The best way to do so is to use the back of your hands and in particular the knuckles but make sure you remove any sharp jewellery first.

When the dough becomes difficult to handle as it becomes bigger and thinner, place it on a lightly floured tablecloth.

With your hands (tip of the fingers) keep stretching gently the dough on the tablecloth to paper thin consistency, from the inside to the outside working your way round the sheet of dough.

Keep stretching until the sheet of dough starts to look almost translucent and you will be able to see a pattern of your tablecloth through it.

You should end up with a thin sheet of dough stretched more or less into a rectangular shape with a diameter of approximately 40 cm which will fit into a standard 40 cm baking tray.

If you notice that the edges are still a bit thick, stretch them further very gently or cut them off. If you leave the edged thick, when rolling the strudel, they will form quite a thick layer at the very centre of the strudel risking to remain slightly underbaked.

Place and spoon evenly the apple mixture over one half of the dough sheet leaving about 2-3cm to the edge.

Fold in the side ends of the sheet to prevent filling coming out during rolling. Using the tablecloth to help you, roll the dough all the way and place the rolled strudel very gently on a baking tray previously lined with baking parchment, seam side down.

Brush it with a bit of melted butter.

Bake on the middle shelf for 40 45 min.

Apple Strudel is ready when the crust turns nice and golden.

Take it out of the oven, let it cool. Dust it with icing sugar, cut into slices and serve it on its own or with vanilla ice cream or cream.

Just a thought

You can make the strudel dough ahead and keep it refrigerated for up to two days. Before using the dough take it out of the fridge allowing it to come to a room temperature.

Wine suggestion

Alto Adige Gewürztraminer DOC Vendemmia Tardiva "Roen" 2019 - Cantina Tramin (0.375l)