During the Christmas Holidays--even in the States--panettone and pandoro are both in plentiful supply, even in large supermarket chains. In fact, I bought several imported pandoro and panettone (they store and freeze well) two days after Christmas for under $5 each!

Pandoro literally means golden bread, and lends itself to making a tree shape because of its fluted sides. To make a tree shape, simply cut 3/4 - 1" thick slices, ensuring that each slice is cut as flat as possible to prevent your "tree" from leaning when re-assembling later. A very sharp chef's knife is better than a serrated bread knife which would create too many crumbs.

You will be filling each layer and re-assembling by alternating the position of each layer to position its points in between the points of the layers below them. Keep track of the orientation of the layers and re-assemble to keep your "tree" from leaning--flipping them upside and to the side after cutting each helps keep them in order.

To make ours, I brushed each layer with a coating of heated and softened seedless red raspberry jam, then willed each layer with some vanilla custard, the same recipe I use when I make pasticiotti. You can also fill them with zabaglione, butter cream, or a store-bought vanilla, or other flavored pudding mix.

I held back a bit of the custard and placed it into a piping bag with a fluted tip, then piped rosettes around the tiers of the assembled panettone tree, placing a blackberry on each. You can use fresh blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or pitted cherries. Top the cake with more piped custard and berries, or place a star-shaped Christmas cookie standing up.  Powdered sugar adds a dusting of "snow" to make it look really festive.

Traditionally, you make tall sliced wedges for each serving and lay them on their side in a dessert plate.

Vanilla Custard Recipe

While French style egg custards can be difficult to master, this is a very easy custard due to the fact that the cornstarch is the thickening agent. This recipe can be used for many pastry treats that utilize a custard as a bed for berries.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1 - 1/2 cup whole milk or Half & Half
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon butter

Directions
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar.
Whisk in the milk and egg yolks.
Place the saucepan on medium heat, stirring with either whisk or spatula until the custard starts to thicken.
Add the vanilla extract and butter and stir until creamy, thick and smooth.
Transfer to a bowl to cool, covering the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

Spread melted seedless on each layer of your pandoro and then spread on a layer of custard. Do this for each payer as you re-assemble your "tree". Pipe rosettes as described above and place your berries. Dust with powdered sugar.

Buon Natale!

--Jerry Finzi

When friends come to visit during the holidays, it doesn't always mean making a formal meal. How about making a Christmas Tree Pizza?

It's easy to make your own fantastic pizza crust and pizza sauce... the toppings are easy: cherry tomatoes or olives for the ornaments and strips of mozzarella, provolone cheese or even sweet peppers. Rough out the pyramidal shape with your dough, then trim the sides with a pizza cutter or chef's scissors.

The star is made from trimmings cut when making the tree shape and topped with provolone. Buon Natale!

--GVI

One of our favorite soups during the Christmas season or anytime during winter is Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. Although you can make this simply by cutting up the squash into cubes and adding them directly to your other ingredients, additional depth of flavor is gained by roasting halved Butternut squash in the oven before adding to the soup. This can also be made using smaller Acorn squash which has a similar taste and texture.

Ingredients
2 butternut squash (or one very large one), halved with seeds scooped out and discarded.
3-4 large carrots, diced (they add texture and sweetness).
1 large sweet onion, diced (Vidalia is best)
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sea salt
40 cracks of freshly ground pepper (or 1 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
32 ounces chicken broth
Plus, additional water or cream as needed to adjust creaminess

For the Garnish
2 cups fresh cranberries (You can also use canned, whole cranberries as your garnish)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 pint of heavy cream (for whipping)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. With a heavy chef's knife, cut the squash in half holding them vertically and firmly. Be careful--it's a tough squash to cut through. Next, using a large spoon, scoop out all the seeds and discard.
3. Place the halved squash cut side up on a heavy baking sheet and coat with olive oil, then season with sea salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes or until the squash becomes very soft and a bit browned.
4. While the squash is roasting, dice your onion and carrots.
5. Next, saute the diced onion in a large sauce pan drizzled with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Sprinkle the onions with the sugar (this helps bring out their sweetness). Saute until the onions are translucent, then add the carrots and cook, stirring occasionally until the carrots are beginning to get tender. You can remove from the heat when they are ready until the squash are finished roasting.
6. When the squash are done, remove from oven and scoop out the flesh, then add to your onions and carrots.
7. Add the chicken broth, salt, cracked pepper, thyme, nutmeg and stir well. Simmer on low heat for 30-45 minutes or until the carrots are very tender.
8. Use an immersion blender (THIS is the one I use) to blend the soup to your preferred level of texture. Some people like this soup thick, some leave a bit of rustic texture while others might add a bit of hot broth or water to make a smoother soup. Personally, we tend to like it a bit thick. At this point, taste your soup and adjust the seasoning, adding more salt or pepper if needed.
9. GARNISH: Place about 2 cups fresh cranberries in a small saucepan along with the sugar, allspice and lemon juice and cook, stirring occasionally until thickened and bubbling. After a while, check the taste of your cranberries and adjust sweetness by adding a bit more sugar if needed. I've found the tartness of cranberries can vary from package to package.
   You can prepare this ahead of time and store in the refrigerator. 
   
10. Whip some cold heavy cream to soft peaks. Add a bit of sugar if you'd like to have your whipped cream be a little sweet.
    
11. To serve, place a spoonful of cranberries in the center of your bowl of soup, then add a dollop or two of fresh whipped cream.
    

Serve with some crusty, heated bread and a glass of Prosecco.

Buon appetito!

--Jerry Finzi

Making gingerbread and gingerbread houses have deep roots in history. Honey cakes can be traced to ancient Rome and culinary historians verify that ginger has been seasoning foodstuffs and drinks since antiquity. It is believed that the gingerbread as it appears today was first baked in Europe at the end of the 11th century, when returning crusaders brought back the custom of spicy bread from the Middle East. Ginger was not only tasty, but also had properties that helped preserve the bread something essential in the ancient world.

According to a medieval legend, there was originally a fourth Magi who was to bring yet another gift to the infant Jesus--ginger. Sometime during his journey he fell ill and never got to Bethlehem, but a local Rabbi nursed him back to health. The Rabbi taught him that the name for Bethlehem in Hebrew actually meant House of Bread, and further told him of how he tasked his young students to make houses of bread to eat in preparation of their hopes for the coming of their Messiah. The Magus gave his chest full of ginger roots to the Rabbi and suggested adding ground-up ginger to the bread for flavor and preservation. The gingerbread house was born!

Gingerbread, as we know it today, descends from Medieval European culinary traditions. The spicy delight was also shaped into different forms by monks in Germany in the 13th century but quickly spread to other European countries. Medieval bakers used carved boards to create elaborate designs but in other places such as Calabria, Italy artisans hand shaped the spicy dough into elaborate designs, still popular today during holidays such as Easter and Christmas. Click HERE to read more about the art of Shaped Mostaccioli, the Calbrian Gingerbread.

As you can see in the photos above, our gingerbread projects were modest at first, mostly a chance to begin the tradition for our son Lucas when he was a little boy. But then our passion for constructing gingerbread grew more complex and we started entering gingerbread house competions...

Our 2018 Gingerbread Project:
Lucas' Concept to Recreate an historic A&P Grocery Store

For this year's project, I really wanted to do an Amalfi Coast hillside village complete with rugged mountain and multiple houses clinging to the cliffs, I was out-voted and we decided to build my son Lucas' concept for a 1930s vintage A&P grocery store--a timely choice since the A&P supermarket chain, the oldest in America, had recently closed all of its stores. Besides, to win, Lisa and Lucas both thought we should do a more "all-American" theme.

The trouble with completing our project was that time was not on our side. For example, to create our gingerbread Colosseum it took about 6 weeks, from planning through baking all the components to finished construction. I don't know how time slipped away from us, but we only had about 10 days to plan and complete our A&P store, which would be difficult to impossible due to all the new techniques we were going to employ for the first time: melted candy windows, poured clear gelatin window "glass", creating miniature products and produce, fondant checkerboard tile floor and fondant asphalt paving, edible printed signage and timed electrical lighting!

Well, somehow we did it! We delivered our project within 15 minutes of the delivery deadline!

In the end, we won First Place in the Authentic Reproduction of a Significant Building category. I think we won based on to Lucas' concept and especially his skill in creating the brick textures and miniature details (fruitcake, fruit, watermelons, pumpkins, baguettes, a cheese board and much more) and his graphic design for all the signage! Oh, and of course, as usual, my wife Lisa helped with the preparation of the gingerbread dough and fondant.

We Three make a great gingerbread team, don't you think?

Buon Natale!

--Jerry Finzi