Things To Look For In An Italian Bakery
Italy is one country that is known for its delicious food. This goes for both sweet food and savory food, but in an Italian bakery, there are lots of things to be found. Generally freshly made, these make good desserts for any meal. Something that works both as a dessert and a snack is the cookie. Italian cookies include the biscotti and amaretti varieties.
As the name suggests, amaretti has amaretto liquor in them, as well as almonds which are also in biscotti. The name biscotti comes from the fact that these biscuits are baked twice, which is why they are crunchy and dry. A slice of cake makes a more formal dessert, and Italy has many varieties of these to offer.
One such cake is the fiorentina, which is also known as the florentine cake. It is a kind of sponge cake that can have a variety of different fillings, although lemon and orange are frequent. Tiramisu is another delicious Italian cake made from biscuits and mascarpone and dipped in coffee and flavored with cocoa and liqueur. It has a soft, moist consistency and has many variations.
The Neapolitan is another kind of Italian cake, and, like the ice-cream, this has three layers. The ice-cream tends to have strawberry, chocolate and vanilla flavored subsections, and this is also done in the case, or at least the same color-scheme is followed. The bigne is a variety of pastry.
The bigne has a very light pastry shell, along with a range of fillings, like ricotta cheese, vanilla or chocolate. The torta la cappuccino pastry is a good example of how much attention Italian chefs pay to visual detail.
It is decorated with espresso beans and ricotta cheese. The pasticiotti pastry is a cream filled cup which can have the possible flavors of chocolate, cream or ricotta. This is probably one of the most famous Italian pastries. Italian bread is also sold in Italian bakeries, as the classic variety is light and crispy with a soft center.
On the other hand, there is the Sicilian variety with its thick center and hard crust. If there is a special occasion, then most bakeries will generally have something or can be commissioned to make something to help you celebrate, whether this is something annual like Christmas or a birthday, or something like a wedding. For those visiting Italy, it is a good plan to remember that there are variations on different recipes, depending on which part of the country that you go to.
Varallo Brothers offers traditional Italian pastries and cookies and also has other Italian bakery favorites. Their bread is still made the old-world way and all the food is made by hand. (www.varallobrothers.com)