Friday, December 9, 2016

A delicious Christmas treat: Baci di Dama




It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, so today I want to share with you a simple recipe for a sweet treat I make every Christmas with my mom in Italy.
They are called Baci di Dama “Lady Kisses”.
It is an easy and simple recipe. You know me, I’m always on the run,  working on my music projects, doing Concerts and writing songs. But I love to eat delicious food so it needs to be delicious and fast to make.
So here is a faster variation of the recipe, where you can buy the amaretto cookie instead or making them from scratch like in the original recipe. My favorite are the Matilde Vicenzi Amaretti d'Italia. Delicious. 

The Baci di Dama is a typical recipe of Piedmont cuisine. The origin of these sweets is an open battle between those who support their origin from the city of Tortona in Piedmont and those who makes them go back to an invention of a pastry chef of the House of Savoy in 1852.
The name of these little pastries seems to derive from their shape that recalls two lips kissing. It was my grandfather Ruggero favorite sweets, and he was indeed from the Piedmont region and of coursed believed it was  from there.

Here how to make them:

Ingredients:

- 120 Amaretti d'Italia Matilde Vicenzi  (macaroons)
- 3 to 4 tablespoons of Nutella
- 1 to 3 cups of coffee mocha (coffee is fine without sugar)
- Grated coconut


Preparation:


1. In a bowl pour the coffee (the coffee needs to be cold) and have some grated coconut ready for the decoration. Have the Nutella ready and a little spoon.



2. Spread now the amaretti cookies with the Nutella. Put the Nutella on an amaretto cookie, on the straight part, then take another one and do the same. Now push them together gently to avoid breakage.


3. Take the stuffed amaretti cookies and dip them one by one in the coffee and then in the grated coconut. Then place them in a baking dish or tray. I love to staple them in a circle so to recreate little Christmas trees.

4. When finished, put the “Baci di Dama” in the fridge for at least half an hour, so all the ingredients will marry beautifully with each other. When it's time to enjoy them, take them out of the fridge and serve them immediately. 

The “Baci di Dama” with coconut and Nutella are perfectly paring with both coffee, tea or herbal tea. Are also excellent on their own, and if you love sweet wines, even with some Marsala.

One little variation to the recipe: You can also add to the cream some mascarpone.  In this case you need to mix together 125 grams of mascarpone and add 1 tablespoon of Nutella. Mix them together in a bowl until you get a smooth cream. Then proceed from point 2.

I hope you will enjoy making them and eating them with your loved ones.

Let's hope it will be a Christmas filled with love for all of us.

Giada

www.giadavalenti.com 






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