Pandoro

I adore Pandoro, I love its texture and its flavour, I love it with very little icing sugar and with a lot of black and tiny vanilla seeds  sprinkled all around in its soft, yellow dough.
Before I started to bake it by myself I was very convinced that it is absolutely impossible to prepare it home-made. At least impossible for me, while I was admiring all those capable food-bloggers that were continuously surprising me with their perfectly raised Pandoro.
And I was wrong, I was very wrong, now I bake it year after year. It is so natural for me to take care of my Pandoro dough all day long. At the end only the time you need to prepare it is long, for the rest, if you are able to bake a brioche, or other yeast dough (bread for example) I'm sure you will enjoy preparing it.
I've found the recipe in the web, almost everybody is using this recipe to bake a classic Pandoro. It works perfectly and the quantity of butter in the dough is exact. If after reading the recipe you get a bit demoralized (it's a long reading after all!), don't give up, just remember the picture of my Pandoro and how beautiful your Christmas table would be with this fluffy and tall desert!

Kuglof od kestena - Bundt-cake with chestnuts- Ciambella lievitata alle castagne

I'm being away from this place for some time, but I have baked a lot in the meanwhile and one of my last autumn creations is this bundt-cake prepared with chestnuts we brought from our last excursion to near forest. It happens year after year, during October  we go to our forest when days are still sunny and warm and the forest starts to change its tunes, but still full of green leaves and summery perfumes.
Nostalgically thinking of another forest, when the time comes to visit the forest, I pack my rucksack, I put on my boots and I go to explore the richness of the nature.

Slatko dizano tijesto s nadjevom od rogača - Yeast dough sweet roll with carob filling - Rotolo dolce di pasta lievitata con il ripieno di carrube

The train started to slow down the speed, we are approaching the city. Arriving from the westside the city welcomes you with its magnificent white castle on the cliff above the sea. It attracts the gaze of travellers while hastily gathering their luggages from the overhead locker. Some of them are already waiting the arrival to the final destination in the corridor. Probably they must continue their journey and don't have time to waste. The view from the window is wide, but not clear. Dense sea fog is announcing autumn rainy day.

I don't mind the weather, nor other passenger's haste. I have enough time before my bus will leave the city. In about one hour I can go quickly to the city center and see if it has changed since I've been there some months ago. Suddenly even the weather changed a bit and a weak midday sun made the fog feeble and eventually it vanished.