Pita bread, the story about trees and wheat - Pane pitta, la storia di alberi e di grano - Pita, priča o drveću i žitu

Long time ago, when I was a child, I went with my family to a journey. We have traveled from the northern Croatian cost, through the nearest mountainous hinterland up to the biggest and most important city in Croatia - Zagreb, but we have traveled ahead through the beautiful countryside where my grandparents lived in a quiet village so similar to thousends of small villages scattered tidily in the flat and rich Croatian countryside. It was so, so long time ago, when hours didn't ran so fast and there were time for everything. Life was simple and easy, people were never late and knew how to enjoyed the life!

So we stopped for a visit to my grandparents only for few days before we went away and continued our journey to Belgrade, the capital city of what once has been my homeland - beautiful, united and proud ex-homeland. Years ago this country tragically disappeared...but this is another long and very complicated story to tell.

Our journey was long, but nothing forced us to arrive to our destination too quickly...and we offten stopped for a break. In those days the high-way was not so fast and crowded, it was a bit larger and straight then the ordinary roads and we have traveled slowly and relaxed.

We gradually entered into the region of Slavonia and we traveled in the shade of big, awesome oak trees. This was the majestic Spačva forest. Suddenly we stopped at this lovely motel surrounded by the barrel-shaped bungalows and the image of those small round huts with sloping roofs remained fixed in my memory. The forest is still there, full of those ancient trees hiding stories of yesteryear!
If you speak about hardwood in my country, you don't have to mention its name, it always comes to the oak wood! Oak wood for enormous wine barrels and small brandy kegs. Oak wood for parquet and furniture. All that need to be lasting and strong was build from the oak wood...in the past and nowadays.
Few months ago I remembered again this journey we did together long time ago, it happened that I've discovered twelve-dots.com  and their beautiful and so essential design. And when my new cuttingboard arrived it was natural to write few words about majestic Croatian woods and oak trees and to bake some sort of bread. Oak trees and golden wheat are the essence of the vast region of Slavonia. Art and crafts are coming back to their old origins offering the beauty to the world!

Sweet cinnamon buns - Panini dolci alla cannella - Slatko pecivo s cimetom

During those days the sky was so crystal clear and high like in Nordic. It was full of big, foamy and white clouds traveling fast towards ovest...After the rain the nature appears neat and pure and I adore feeling the perfume of wet ground and roads vanishing in the air. The best thing to do during long and wet summer days is to bake some soft and flavourful buns, like the ones I did and very similar to "Kanelbullar". When I prepare my kanelbullar I feel in heaven. I like to touch the soft and perfumed dough..

These small buns are full of flavours, you can hardly resist to the temptation to devour some until still warm.  Last time I've baked sweet buns was few weeks ago and I was at home in Croatia with my parents. My mother continued saying that she was never able to do the dough like I do it. She forgot that I should have probably learned this art from her...so I smiled and continued making my buns without speaking. I wanted them to be nice, almost perfect, better then usually, I wanted my mother to be proud of both of us! It's so good to be at home!

Each time I want to bake something I use the same recipe. After reading so many cookbooks and magazins I've decided that my basic recipe is the one I like most of all other recipes I've ever tried. From time to time I only change some spices to get the dough with slightly different taste, but only when I desire something particularly flavourful...and it's almost always!

Tarte tatin with pears and cardamom - Tarte tatin di pere e cardamomo - Tarte tatin s kruškama i kardamomom

I'm still craving for winter flavours! Because I love winter and I love when it’s raining in summertime. I love the nostalgic atmosphere during summer storms and the perfume of water all around in the air and evaporating from the moist ground.

These last days were absolutely crazy, no rest, no breath, no sense of time passing by. The only thing that remained in my mind are powerful storms and heavy rain and thunders. It always happen so suddenly, the sky gets grey and blurry. No time to search for the shelter, only the desire to run away!

Now I’ve finally finished what I’ve started few weeks ago. Even if I’ve promised to myself to slow down, I’m not keeping my promise, I’m still exaggeratedly fast, but I must admit that I feel the weakness and fatigue. Thanks to heaven it’s weekend again and I will recover, because I need time, more time to be alone with myself!

Tarte tatin is my favourite cake, I bake it often, me and Mr.M. enjoy its spicy taste. This time I’ve changed completely the recipe, I wanted to try something new, fresh and full of flavours.