Mamma Mia Italian Edible Christmas Gifts!
@ The Cookery School
I have had the best day and I mean the best. Mamma Mia Italian Edible Christmas Gifts Course, it’s not often one gets a whole day out of the normal hum rum of life to immerse yourself in your true passion. For me that’s cooking & baking! Well today I did and I have to tell you it felt like fab the ultimate indulgence! That in itself seems like a very silly thing to say but really we HAVE to make time sometimes to do the stuff we love.
Well thanks to my lovely friend I was invited to attend The Cookery School at Braxted Park, thank so much for the invitation Mel.
The Course was titled ‘Italian Edible Christmas Gifts’ Cookery Course hosted by the wonderful Ursula Ferringno (what a charming, clever, talented, lovely lady – oozing passion from every pore, she guided us through more that 6hrs of back to back cooking
So we were to arrive at 9.00am for coffee and to meet the other delegates – this is the setting, quite impressive …….
We all had a natter and a coffee in a wonderful dining room attached to the cookery kitchen. And then we were off, there were 12 of us and we all had a work station in the beautiful kitchen – oh what I would do for a kitchen that size, beautiful and lovely cold granite surfaces with top notch equipment! (a little MasterChef like)
These were the things we made:
- Salamoia Bolognese – seasoning from Bologna
- Biscotti alle mandorle – twice baked almond cookies
- Limoncello – Lemon Liqueur
- Fichi secchi con mandorle e cioccolato – Almond stuffed figs dipped in chocolate
- Panforte de siena – a traditional cake from Siena with a nougat-like texture
- Taralli – twisted Italian breadsticks seasoned with fennel
- Ricciarelli – Sticky Italian Biscuits
I have all the recipes if anyone fancies them but I will share Ursula’s Ricciarelli Biscuits with you! I’ll do that in a separate post 🙂
Once we had baked we took a little time to pack our goodies in nice packaging they looked so cute!
How lovely would a festive hamper brimming with wonderful home made gifts be for your nearest and dearest.
Personally, I do not think that there is anything nicer than homemade gifts (made with love) it shows just how much you care for them.
Ursula shared not only her recipes but her vast knowledge for us to create these homemade gifts.
BONUS 🙂
As a little extra we got to watch Ursula make the perfect pasta – AND she made us the most simply exquisite lunch Tortellini stuffed with ricotta, parmesan and spinich served with sage butter. Amazing
We finished the day with coffee and a few of our masterpieces.
I had a great time and I would highly recommend. We even got to take our produce home and the apron (nice)
This course costs £145.00 per person including lunch & a glass of wine
P.S the lovely Alli and Sharon from The Cookery School helped us a lot and NO WASHING UP the little fairies did it 🙂
(and it has made me even more determined to have my own EPLS Cookery School at some point – I so want to spend time with kids teaching them to cook…. dreamland – meanwhile back in the real world)
Here’s the link, in case you’re interested (I’m already looking at some of the other courses) :
http://www.braxtedparkcookery.co.uk
(Not Sponsored)
Julia
What a fabulous read. Well done Clare x
Jane
That’s inspired me to get making biscotti for chrimbo jx
Clare x
good good x