Corn
Flour in Antique Venetian Baking Traditions: Learn Easy
Organic Cookie Recipes
(By Heather
Bettendorf - President, PRIMA Organic Foods)
Corn
Flour, a readily available organic food ingredient in the
18th and 19th century Venetian countryside, was employed
in delightful, organic cookies. Easy to make, serve
them to your friends and family, or give them as gifts in
lovely tins or boxes, as the Venetians did.
The
Veneto region, comprising the islands of Venice, and a vast,
dry land territory covering Padova, Verona, and Vicenza
was largely an agricultural area dedicated to farming of
corn, soft wheat, and fruits and vegetables during the pre-industrial
age. Money was scarce, and families survived largely
on the fruits of their labor, fish from the Venetian lagoon,
and a diet creatively designed around those organic grains,
like corn, that were in abundance. Meats were considered
a luxury. In fact, cured meats and salamis were a
solution to the lack of refrigeration and provided a hearty
alternative to the otherwise "poor" diet.
Thus,
the organic baking traditions reflected not only the antique
traditions, but also the organic ingredients most readily
available. Converting corn into polenta for the dinner
table or a sweet cookie for the desert table represented
the marriage of necessity to nutrition. In fact, most
of the traditional Venetian organic cookies are dry, rather
than moist, given the scarcity of organic ingredients, the
difficulty in conserving them, and the palette preferences
of the Venetians for a drier organic cookie. Many
of the desert and organic cookie recipes were secret, passed
down through the maternal side, and often nicknamed "biscotti
della nonna" or "grandmother's cookies" to
represent their homemade origins. The organic cookies
were jealously conserved in lovely tin or wood boxes, next
to the crystal bottles of rose oil, walnut liqueur, or citron
liqueur.
Corn
and wheat were organic grains that, at the time, produced
according to what we consider today as organic farming.
Today, these same recipes are replicated as organic cookies,
a healthy alternative to conventional practices, which respect
the environment and do not employ the use of pesticides.
These sweet organic treats have been made for centuries,
although never too sweet, as it was the homemaker's intention
to let the organic ingredients speak for themselves, whereas
sugar was an expensive indulgence.
This
traditional, organic cookie recipe is easy to prepare:
Zaeti
Zaeti
in Venetian Dialect translates to "gialetti" in
Italian, or "small yellow cookies", a nickname
given for the fact that they are made of yellow corn flour,
an element common to every family kitchen in the region,
and therefore a sign of their rusticity. To make them
more "genteel", tradition called for the addition
of wheat flour, sugar and raisins.
Organic
Food Ingredients: 7/8 cup of flour, 1 1/3 cup
of finely ground corn flour, an abundant half cup of sugar,
an abundant half cup of unsalted butter,2 eggs, ¼
cup of raisins, one half ounce of yeast, 1 grated lemon,
½ of a small glass of grappa, a dash of salt, 2
tablespoons of flour for the workspace, 4 tablespoons
of lightly sifted confectioner's sugar
Place
the raisins in tepid water for 10 minutes to soften them.
Drain the water and gently wring them with your hands
to remove the excess water. Put them in a bowl and
add the grappa to "bathe" them for approx 20
minutes. Then drain the grappa and dry them with
a very clean kitchen towel.
Sift
the wheat and corn flour together with the yeast and salt
and place in a bowl. Add the beaten eggs, and the
melted butter. Mix with a fork and add the raisins.
(Before adding the raisins, to make sure they don't fall
to the bottom of the mixture, follow this procedure: lightly
dust them with 2 tablespoons of flour). Add the
sugar and the grated lemon peel.
Mix
until the dough becomes homogenous. Lay the dough
out on a lightly floured workspace, and roll it out to
a thickness of just less than ½ an inch.
Using the rolling pin to help you, and using a knife,
cut out long ovals about 2 inches in length.
Place
them on a baking sheet, not too close together, and bake
in a 350 ° oven for 20 minutes. Once cooled,
dust them with the confectioner's sugar and serve together
with your favorite liqueur.
Enjoy
these organic, Venetian sweets and please your family and
friends with them by bringing antique traditions to your
table, just as the Venetians have done for centuries.
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