Bittersweet chocolate brings rich and extraordinary new flavor—and a new story—to the unique Jewish-Italian sfratti (stick cookies) in my brand new recipe. Sfratti, which means “evictions,” nod to a dark time in Italian-Jewish history in the Tuscan town of Pitigliano, when Jews were evicted and sent to ghettoes by stick-wielding authorities. Eventually allowed to return […]
Chocolate Lava Cakes
March 19, 2015 · by
Passover, let me introduce you to my newest sweet friend, the chocolate lava cake…wait, what? You know chocolate lava cake’s Italian grandmother? Seriously? Yes, that’s right. Lava, molten, or pudding cakes with that luscious liquid chocolate center might seem like a hot, hot, hot contemporary fad, but the concept has a connection to Italy. In […]
Baby Chocolate Babkas
December 22, 2014 · by
Chocolate babka caught my eye, well, first because of the chocolate, of course. But it also intrigued me because it keeps company this time of year with other sweet yeast breads stuffed with more sweets—the German stollen and especially the Italian panettone usually scented with citrus and filled with dried fruit (and sometimes pine nuts […]
