I Cornetti

Whenever I have a failure in the kitchen (which thankfully isn’t a frequent occurrence) I feel the need to get right back in there and prove to myself that I can do it. Usually I remake the dish after analyzing where I went wrong. This wasn’t the case last week when I had a baking  mishap. I had the feeling that there was possibly a mistake in the recipe. After throwing the bars in the trash I set the bar fairly high when I decided to tackle cornetti-the Italian version of a croissant.

Go into just about any bar or pasticceria in Italy in the morning and you will find cornetti in the pastry case. You will probably be standing next to a regular who is eating a cornetto while sipping a caffe or a cappuccino. It’s my go to morning  snack, unless I feel the urge for a budino di riso, but that’s another story.

I’ve wanted to make these for years and after getting my new favorite cookbook-Florentine-by blogger Emiko Davies-I decided to dive in and tackle them. This book is gorgeous-from the quality of the paper to the professional photos which made me seriously homesick for Italy. The recipes are classic ones from the city of Florence and like many Italian dishes, they are simple and do not require a lot of ingredients.

I will not mislead you by saying this is a recipe that comes together quickly. I started the dough on Friday, let it sit overnight and began anew  at 9:00 on Saturday morning. Making the dough is not difficult, but it is time consuming as it requires a  lot of “resting”. I was in for the long haul and not at all discouraged when it wasn’t until 6 pm that I took the finished product from the oven. Not exactly my morning snack but I ate one anyway!

Delicious-just like in Lucca, except I’m in California. I’m not posting the recipe,which is lengthy. I encourage you to buy Emiko’s book. You will love it, especially if you’ve ever been to Florence. At the very least take a look at her blog-Emiko Davies.