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| Bake with Maria |
Italian cuisine is admired and liked all over the world. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like pizza or pasta and especially the desserts. You might have noticed there are a lot of desserts and sweet treats on the blog. My mom used to make some Italian desserts at home; I am sure she prepared them with the available ingredients at the time. I would say she used artistic license and a bit of guidance from my Italian grandmother. Nevertheless, they were made with love the most important ingredient in any recipe and they were seriously delicious.
Some Italian recipes date back centuries and are steeped in social and political history. I love a good story, learning the background of a dish and how they evolved over the years. When I was invited to try out a class of Italian desserts, a taste of Tuscany at Bake with Maria, I was very excited about the prospect of learning tricks and tips how to achieve perfect Italian treats from a professional.
First The Vanilla Pannacotta, I had many variations of the theme but I haven’t until now being wowed by them. Our pannacotta had the right wobble, snow-white with flecks of vanilla seeds – perfect!
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| Vanilla Pannacotta |
After that, while the pannacotta was in the fridge setting, we learned to make Savoiardi Biscuits aka Lady Fingers, my mom used to make lots of recipes using these biscuits. I was astonished how easy and quick they are to make. It took a whole 15 minutes to whisk the batter up and to pipe it in very creative forms. A further 5 minutes to bake. One minute they are gone!
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| Savoiardi biscuits |
Next was the tiramisu and semifreddo alla tiramisu – that was clever, making two different desserts using the same recipe! The tiramisu cream has a few steps and a particular method, but oh my!!! that was a creamiest and velvety cream ever! We used a recipe of Savoiardi for the tiramisu, so everything was homemade and very tasty.
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| semifreddo alla tiramisu with coffee syrup – pure indulgence |
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| tiramisu at home |
Last but not least, the gluten-free Lemon, Polenta & Rosemary cakes, light and soaked in syrup was a great end to our class. We took away our desserts and a couple of more recipes in your takeaway presentation.
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| Lemon, Polenta & Rosemary cakes at home! |
I really enjoyed this course. I learned a few tricks on baking and presentation. Marianne, our teacher for the evening, was knowledgeable, clear communicator and very patient. The school is small but well formed and equipped. It felt very personal and I think that made the whole experience fun and light. This class was very informative. London courses starts at £95 to £145/each. They also sell gift vouchers. I am definitely practising pipping for my Savoiardi biscuits and maybe when I am more confident try to add flavours to them.
Bake with Maria, The Baking Lab
2nd floor,
81 Loudoun Road,
St Johns Wood,
London,
NW8 0DQ
Telephone: +44 (0) 207 998 1634
e: maria@bakewithmaria.com
Disclosure: I was a guest at Bake with Maria Italian desserts, A taste of Tuscany course. All views are my own.
