Buckeyes

If there was an Annual Montenero Cooking Championship and we were to pick brackets, Josie Pelusi would at least make the Final Four every single year.  This is Josie's recipe for the Ohio-famous buckeye candies; a peanut butter confection partially dunked in chocolate.

1/2 pound (8 ozs) of peanut butter (not organic)
3/4 pound of confectioners sugar
1/4 pound margarine or butter
6 oz chocolate chips
1/4 slab of paraffin wax* or 1/2 teaspoon melted Crisco

Mix peanut butter, powdered sugar and margarine together until smooth. Form into balls. (I used a scoop-look familiar yet?) Refrigerate or freeze balls until firm.
Melt chocolate chips and paraffin (or Crisco) in a double boiler.  This is nothing more than a gently boiling pan of water with a heat proof mixing bowl on top.  The  bottom of the bowl should not touch the boiling water.
Once chocolate is melted, dip balls into chocolate.  Do not completely submerge-leave a small circle on top so the peanut butter mixture shows through. Allow candies to dry on wax paper (or parchment paper).
Sing the Ohio State Fight Song.
OSU fight song

St Joseph Day Figgy Cookies

Grandma Aduccia and Grandpa Marshall

My grandpa Marshall would never miss Mass on Easter Sunday or St Joseph Day, March 19th.  It was his way of honoring the patron saint of carpentry (his profession) and reminding the Irish that St Patrick was given to them by the very generous Italian people.  If you ever met my grandpa and talked with him, you'd understand. Since Grandpa Marshall loved figs, I created this version of the traditional St Joseph Day fig cookie.     
Filling Ingredients:
2 seven ounce bags of dried Mission figs
1/4 cup raisins, soaked in port or brandy
1/4 cup dried apricots, soaked in orange juice 
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped fine 
1/2 cup almonds, toasted and chopped fine
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1/2 cup honey (I used local from the farmers market)
1 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/2  teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ('not too much!' per Zia Elia)
nutmeg, freshly grated, just a fine dusting
1/4 cup liquor (I used the port 'leftovers')
Method:
Using a food processor, combine figs, raisins, and apricots.  Pulse until all are finely chopped.  In a medium mixing bowl, stir together preserves, honey, orange and lemon zest, cinnamon (not too much!) and liquor.  Grate a fine dusting of nutmeg (approximately 1/4 teaspoon) over the top. Now mix in nuts and fruit mixture from the food processor.  Cover and refrigerate until you're ready to make the cookies.
Dough Ingredients
4  cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 oz (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter
4 large fresh eggs at room temperature
pinch of orange zest
Method:
Place flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor.  Pulse for a minute or so just to mix ingredients. Add butter, cut up into small pieces.  Pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, or is sort of crumb-y. (It's a dough thing)
Add eggs, one at a time, until dough just comes together on the blade.
Carefully remove dough, and knead for a minute or two on a lightly floured work surface until dough comes together.  This wont take more than a minute.  Pat dough into a frisbee shape about an inch thick.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until you're ready to make the cookies.
To Make the Cookies:
Remove the frisbee of dough, and cut into 8 equal pie-shaped wedges. Working on a lightly floured surface, roll the wedge into a narrow cylinder approximately one foot long.  Use a rolling pin to flatten and shape the dough into a rectangle at least 3" wide and 14" long.  Now pipe (or spoon) the filling right down the center.  Brush egg wash around all the edges.  Starting in the center, pick up top edge and gently rollover the filling so top lip is tucked under the lower edge, creating a seam.  Repeat this from the center out towards the ends, taking care to roll seam to the center-bottom of the fruit filled roll of dough. Cut off the ends. Cut cuccidati into pieces about 1 1/2" long, or a size to your liking. Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake at 375* for 15-18 minutes.
While cookies are baking, make a quick glaze with confectioner's sugar and lemon or orange juice.  When cookies are completely cool, spoon glaze over the top of the cookies, and sprinkle with decorative balls or sprinkles.
Dean martin sings 'Volare', one of grandpa's favorites  PS to Gerardo, is this legal?

Nibblin on Spongecake

Has anyone been to a Montenero gathering, big or small, fancy or not, that didn't feature at least one spongecake, unadorned, right in the center of the table. This recipe is my mother's and it is classic Donna. As a young bride,  mom baked this spongecake for her in-laws, Turkey and Delfina (remember them?) It was the very first cake that she ever made in her new house, in Rocky River, circa 1965. She has been baking it ever since, and it is perfect.
Ingredients
2   teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1   cup cake flour
2/3 cup sugar
2   teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs at room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water (cold)
Method
Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Make a 'well' in the center of these dry ingredients. 
Separate the eggs. Place the whites into a mixing bowl, and the yolks into the center of the well. 
Add vegetable oil, lemon juice and water to the well. With mixer on low setting, slowly incorporate the flour into the wet ingredients in the well. Turn mixer to high speed, beat until nice and smooth.  Fold egg yolk mixture into egg white mixture.  Using a soft spatula, put mixture into a tube pan.  No need to grease or flour in preparation.
Bake in preheated oven at 350* for 30-35 minutes, until golden in color.  Invert pan on countertop until cooled completely.  When ready to serve, use a butter knife around the edges of the pan and around the tube. Serve on a pretty platter.

Chocolate Biscotti with Chocolate and Sea Salt

Fins up to Mike Massey and his hard-working friend Danny Purdue for the incredible floor seats at the Jimmy Buffett Concert in Margaritaville/Louisville.  Parrothead parents, John and Kristy Purdue, and Lee and I,  swayed and sang along to everyone's island favorites. We had the best time!!!  These chocolate biscotti are dipped in a chocolate ganache and sprinkled with sea salt that was harvested from the Florida Keys. If Lee knew how much the salt cost per pound, he wouldnt have wondered out loud why I only sprinkled part of each biscotti.  :)  Shhh. It's our secret.
Ingredients
2  1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2  Tablespoons of polenta (corn meal :)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1   Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3  large eggs
1  cup sugar
2 (1 oz) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened
1  teaspoon rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
scant 1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Combine flour, polenta, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar for several minutes until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, until each one is just blended in.  Add cooled chocolate, rum, vanila and orange zest. Slowly and steadily add flour mixture. Stop mixer when ingredients are just-blended.
Turn bowl upside down on top of a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Guide dough onto sheet, then form dough into a broad, rounded mound approximately 10"x 6".  Bake at 350 degrees until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 
When once-baked biscotti loaf has cooled, use a serrated knife to cut into 1/2" slices.  Place each slice on baking sheet, and bake for the second time in the oven, which has been turned down to 300 degrees.
Once biscotti have cooled, dip in chocolate ganache and sprinkled with sea salt.