December 23
Eiswein -- or ice wine,if you prefer -- originated in Germany in the late 18th century. The secret to ice wine is in the harvesting -- the grapes should not be picked until the temperatures reach -10 to -13 celcius, in order to get the maximum sugar content out of the grapes.
The grapes are also harvested by hand, and have a very low yield -- hence the hefty price tags for the stuff. But it's worth it, it's so worth it. And I can safely say that we Canucks do ice wine very, very, very well indeed.
Ice wine is best served as a dessert wine, chilled. But it's also good in these truffles (note that all the ingredients are weighed for this recipe):
wabi sabi's Ice Wine Truffles
350g very good chocolate, shaved
200g cream
60g butter
20 mL ice wine
cocoa (optional, but nice)
Place the shaved chocolate in a bowl. Bring the cream to the boil, and remove immediately from the heat. Wait 20 seconds, then pour the cream over the chocolate in a fine stream, stirring slowly, until smoothly combined. Stir in the butter. At the end, add the ice wine.
Let the truffle paste cool until it is firm (don't put it in the refrigerator, or it will get too hard). Form the truffle paste into small mis-shapen balls (the more mis-shapen, the more they look like their namesakes). Roll them in the cocoa, if you wish. Place these on a tray, then put them in the fridge to set for at least an hour before eating.
Variation: substitute 20 mL of good quality whiskey for the ice wine. Mmmm...
And yet another recipe from Anna Olson for those of us who love the ice wine: Fruited Ice Wine Cake
December 18
Biscottini al vin santo (Vin Santo cookies)
Ingredients (notes to follow):
- 500 gr flour (type "00")
- 200 gr vin santo
- 200 gr sugar
- 200 gr chocolate chips
- 100 gr pine nuts
- 200 gr corn oil
- 1 tsp baking powder
- a pinch of salt
Some notes about the ingredients:
Yes, measurements again. But this recipe is so dead easy, just weigh, mix and go.
The chocolate chips are the tiny ones, not the great mother of all chocolate chip type. You can substitute the same amount of currants for the chocolate chips if you like. I've made them both ways, and do admit to preferring the currants, but the chocolate chips are nice, too.
The flour is an Italian designation often used in baking (tipo 00) -- but you may substitute all-purpose flour.
The recipe calls for corn oil, but I used canola both times, and it worked out fine.
The Vin Santo: Vin Santo is an Italian dessert wine, generally served with dessert (especially biscotti). It can be hard to find where I live, and expensive -- you could substitute marsala or a muscat for the Vin Santo if you like.
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper. It's often best to use as many cookie sheets as you have for this recipe, as the mixture is very wet, and tends to separate if you don't work quickly enough.
Mix all the ingredients together quickly. Drop by small amounts (a teaspoon or so) on the cookie sheet. Cook for around 15 minutes, until the cookies just start to turn golden at the edges -- the bottoms will cook more than the tops, so be mindful of this. Let them sit on the pans to cool very briefly, then move to a plate. Dust with icing sugar.
As I mentioned, the dough is very wet, and tends to be oily -- the oil is what tends to separate out. But once the cookies are baked they aren't oily at all, and actually keep quite well in an air-tight container.
Yield: approximately 60 cookies.
December 16
Sorry for the late post today -- and tomorrow may likely be late as well, as I'm a tad under the weather this weekend (usual holiday season cold).
I have to confess that I'm a little bit fascinated by webcams -- and one of my favourites is that from the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremburg. I love this market and have been there twice? three times? All my tree ornaments come from there, the sausage is the best I've ever eaten, and I'd happily visit again.
Oh, yeah -- they have yarn, too:
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