Trip to Como, Italy

Clean, well-maintained - it has a Swiss feeling :)

Santa Claus bread - recipe (including photos)

Christmas is already behind us, but for next year keep in mind this recipe :).

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of (semi-complete) flour
• 230 milliliters of water
• 80 milliliters of milk
• 60 grams of butter
• 15 grams of fresh yeast
• 2 spoons with olive oil 
• 1 spoon with sugar
• salt
• a few spoons with bell pepper or tomato pasta

Mix the yeast with the sugar and the warm milk. Add the flour.

Add the olive oil, the warm water and the salt and make a non sticky dough.

Add the butter, one spoon at the time and incorporate it in the dough.
Let the dough rest for 30-40 minutes.

Divide the dough in 2 parts: one bigger then the other.

Spread the bigger part on the table in form of a pear.

Cut narrow strips in the lower part of the dough and turn every stripe into a spiral.

Now, take two olives and make the eyes.

Bend the top of the dough like in the photo below.

Divide the second part of the dough in 4-5 pieces.

Take one piece from the second part of the dough and make a small strip in order to set as the border of the hat.

From the second dough take another piece and make a star like in the photo. This will be put on the hat :).

Now, from another piece make a round ball and put the nose.

Under the nose, use the remaining dough and make the mustache :).

Take some tomato juice or bell pepper pasta and color the hat, the nose and the cheeks.

Put it in the oven at 180 Celsius degrees for 25-35 minutes or until ready.

 Have fun preparing and eating it ;)!

The original recipe can be found here

Trip to Brig-Glis, Switzerland

The biggest town in the area, so the main place for shopping and services when in the area.

Otherwise, not really worth a tourist's time and money.

Sondrio, Italy Christmas market

Just a few stands, but with some nice products.

Jam biscuits - recipe (including photos)

A dozen of biscuits simple and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 190 grams of semi-complete flour
• 110 grams of butter
• 50 grams of brown sugar
• 1 egg
• half of a teaspoon with baking powder 
• salt

Beat the egg with the sugar for a minute or two.

Add the butter at room temperature and mix. Add the salt.

Add the flour (previously mixed with the baking powder) little by little and mix.
Make a non sticky dough and let it rest in the fridge for 2 hours.

Divide the dough in 2 parts.
Spread one of them on the table and make little round forms. You can also use a glass if you dont´t have a round form.

On half of them make another form in the middle: heart, star, etc. and remove the middle dough like in the photo.

Put the biscuits in an oven tray covered with baking paper and bake them at 180 Celsius degrees for 8-10 minutes.When ready let it cool!

Repeat the entire process with the other half of the dough.

Spread each full biscuit with jam.

Above, add the biscuit with a hole in the middle. You can spread above some powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

The original recipe can be found here

Bormio, Italy Christmas market 2015

A few stands with lovely things to buy.