Tag: bread

Valle d’Aosta micóoula, the sweet bread of the holidays: recipe – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

There Valle d’Aosta micóoula means “small, slightly special bread” in the local patois dialect. It was born in Hône, an Italian municipality of around 1200 inhabitants in the province of Aosta and, also thanks to a non-profit association in the town, it has been produced by hand for years, especially during the Christmas holidays. A poor black bread, but enriched with local products such as chestnuts, figs, walnuts and raisins. The dough is prepared by mixing rye and wheat flour with water and salt, to which the yeast is added and then left to rest for about an hour. The other ingredients are then added. Place it in the oven and leave to cook for about an hour and a half.

«There were four of us who started and now we are about ten, all volunteers explains Flavio, secretary of Amis de la Micóoula, the association founded in 2008 by a group of young people from Hône, in Valle d’Aosta. The aim of the members is to rediscover the local tradition, recover the fields and rural buildings – such as mills, ovens, dryers – revalue the villages, the return of young people to their origins and above all the involvement of the whole community in a linked project to the territory. «Michel is the president, I am the oldest (32 years old, ed….). The others are all between 24 and 25 years old. We grow wheat non-commercially, but only to maintain tradition. Wheat, like all crops, needs rotation, so at the end of the wheat harvest, we sow potatoes.”

Courtesy Amis de la Micòoula

Brioche bread men – Recipe by – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

First, dissolve the yeast in warm milk.

Place the flours in a well in a bowl and add milk, sugar, egg and orange peel to the centre.
Start kneading, then add salt and oil and work until you obtain an elastic and homogeneous dough.

Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for at least 2-3 hours or until it has almost tripled in volume.

Take the dough, deflate it with your hands on a lightly floured work surface and roll it out into a fairly thin sheet (0.5-1 cm), then cut out the little men using a 7-8 cm cutter.

Place the little men on the baking tray lined with baking paper, well spaced apart, and let them rise for at least another hour, then brush them with the lightly beaten egg yolk and cook for 15-20 minutes or until golden in a static oven preheated to 180°C .

Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then chop the chocolate and melt it in the microwave or in a bain-marie.

Decorate the little men as desired with melted chocolate and chopped pistachios.

The brioche bread men are ready, let the chocolate dry before serving.

Chocolate banana bread – Recipe by – Italian Cuisine

First, peel the bananas, cut them into pieces and mash them with the tines of a fork.

Add soy milk, sugar and oil and start blending with a blender.

Sift flour, cocoa, salt and cinnamon into a bowl and add them all together, then mixing with a spatula.

Coarsely chop the walnuts and incorporate them into the mixture, leaving some aside for decoration.

Pour the mixture into the mold lined with baking paper, decorate with the remaining walnuts and cook for 30-40 minutes at 180°C, in a pre-heated static oven.

The banana bread is ready, at least let it cool before turning it out.