{"id":1609,"date":"2010-02-08T04:03:03","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T11:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marialiberati.com\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2010-02-08T04:03:03","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T11:03:03","slug":"a-medieval-monastery-a-fragrant-ciambella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/2010\/02\/08\/a-medieval-monastery-a-fragrant-ciambella\/","title":{"rendered":"A Medieval Monastery & a Fragrant Ciambella"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"basilica-casamari\"
\ncopyright 2010, Maria Liberati
\nMy visit\u00a0 to the medieval Abbey of Casamari<\/a> in the province of Frosinone<\/a> was a visit back to the medieval\u00a0 pharmacies where many of the medicinal herbal formulas were discovered by the Benedictine monks<\/a> here and brought to the world. The liqueurs and honeys\u00a0 are all produced at the Abbey in a traditional way, all fruits,herbs, plants used are all grown organically by the monks there..a virtual trip back in time.. After Sunday mass (said by the monks in Latin),\u00a0and a visit to the Abbey’s pharmacy and store the open air market beckoned.
\nThe fragrance of freshly made (locally) made ciambella were almost calling my name. These particularly local ciambella made with anise seeds and boiled then baked<\/a> (like \u00a0a bagel) are\u00a0a typical product from \u00a0this region, but\u00a0 are an artisan food <\/a>that are not so easy to find..probably since they are not so quick to make and are made in an artisan way…
\nThey bring back memories of my grandmother (who made her own delicious version of these for breakfast) telling stories of how she would go to her local town bakery ( in the town of Venafro, Italy<\/a>)\u00a0in the morning and get them\u00a0freshly baked\u00a0for breakfast… my great aunt (her older \u00a0sister)\u00a0 owned the bakery and made these for her….\u00a0These locally baked treats have been almost impossible to locate ..so this was a real trip back in time..and an unexpected culinary treat..mmm..a piece of local \u00a0cheese with a\u00a0 hot,freshly baked ciambella..could not have dreamed of a better lunch…can not even describe the experience..it was one to be savored….
\nHere is another version of a classic ciambella, known as a ciambellone,\u00a0similar to \u00a0a pound cake<\/a>, delicious also and a little bit easier to make..while I pull out my recipe for the ciambellone I feasted on today..and put on the great new apron I just found that includes a towel attached zipdry<\/a> \"zip-dry-apron\"
\nCiambellone Classico <\/strong>
\n(<\/strong>from the Gourmand World Cookbook Award Winner The Basic Art of Italian Cooking: Holidays &Special Occasions<\/a><\/strong>
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2 cups all purpose flour<\/a> or cake flour sifted
\n\u00be cup sugar
\n2 eggs
\n\u00bd cup melted butter
\n1 tsp baking powder<\/a>
\n\u00bc tsp salt
\npeel of 1 lemon
\nextra flour and butter for greasing pan
\nWork together the sugar and eggs. Blend in flour and melted butter. Work the dough till it is a smooth blended dough and add in the baking powder and salt and lemon peel. Butter and flour a cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Should be golden on top. Remove from oven and cool. You can decorate the top with a dusting of powdered sugar<\/a> or shaved dark chocolate<\/a>.
\nMangia bene, Vivi Bene,
\nMaria
\nVisit me at OpenSky<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

copyright 2010, Maria Liberati My visit\u00a0 to the medieval Abbey of Casamari in the province of Frosinone was a visit back to the medieval\u00a0 pharmacies where many of the medicinal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[829,751,71,244,334,102,139,874],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-baking","tag-baking-powder","tag-cooking","tag-flour","tag-home","tag-italy","tag-powdered-sugar","tag-types-of-chocolate"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marialiberati.com\/freshsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}