Sharing the recipes from her childhood
For passionatehome cook and baker Silvia Colloca there is nothingmore satisfying than baking— combining the simplest of ingredients and seeing them transformed into the most delicious creations to share with others.
In Laugh, Love, Bake! Silvia sharesmorethan 120 of her must-have recipes including breads, tarts, pies and cookies.
This is easy, generous food for every day. Silvia’s baking is simple, classic and enriched with her warmth sense of joy and abundance.
Following is one of her recipes:
EASYLEMON SHORTBREAD COOKIES
WhenI’m craving a simple yet satisfying cookie, I often turn tomymother’s tried and tested recipe for lemon shortbread. The dough can bemadeby hand in minutes, but ifyou are in ahurry, a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment will do the job foryou in amatter of seconds. The almond meal adds moistness and longevity to these cookies, and the potato starch helps create an ineffably light texture.
Ingredients
■ 100g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting (optional)
■ 150g unsalted butter, softened
■ 200g(1 1⁄ cups) self
3 raising flour
■ 50g( 1⁄ cup) almondmeal
2
■ 1Tbsp potato starch
■ 1vanilla bean, splitand seeds scraped, or 1 tsp vanillabeanpaste
■ finely grated zest of 1 largelemon(or 2 small ones)
Method
Creamthe icing sugar and butter in a stand mixer fitted with awhisk, or use awooden spoon (the oldfashionedwayismore laborious, but that’showmynonna used tomake these!).
Addthe remaining ingredients and mixwell to incorporate. Roll the dough into a log. Wrapit firmly in plastic film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Take the dough log out of the fridge and cut into 1 cmthick rounds. Placethemon the prepared tray, leaving plenty of roomfor spreading, and bake for 12— 15minutes or until cooked through and lightly golden. Cool on the tray for a fewminutes, then transfer to awire rack to cool completely. Serve as they are or dusted with extra icing sugar.
— Makes10— 12