GALANI CHERRY ‘SANDWICH’
Whip the cream until it has soft peaks. To serve the sandwiches, spoon a small amount of the soft whipped cream onto your plates. On top of each place a galani wafer, some more whipped cream, a pile of cherries with their juices, another galani wafer and a good dusting of icing sugar.
Venice during Carnevale is best avoided. The crowds are daunting and all that mask-wearing can be disconcerting. But there are some interesting sweets and biscuits that are made only at this time of the year that can take your mind off the madness, should you find yourself in Venice in February. Galani are sweet wafers, a bit like crunchy flat doughnuts. You could eat them on their own with liberal dustings of icing sugar or they are perfect for this boozy cherry ‘sandwich’. For six: 120g granulated sugar 250g pitted fresh cherries 30ml Kirsch 2 medium free-range eggs 50g caster sugar 2 tablespoons sunflower oil 50ml white wine 1 tablespoon rum 1 tablespoon grappa 250g Italian 00 flour ½ tablespoon baking powder Pinch of fine salt 1 litre vegetable oil, for deep-frying 200ml whipping cream Icing sugar, to serve Mix the granulated sugar into 120ml water over a medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat and gently boil for a further 5 minutes. The sugar and water will have formed a gloopy syrup. Then add the pitted cherries and boil for 2 minutes more. Take off the heat and allow to cool. Stir in the Kirsch and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and caster sugar with a whisk. Mix in the sunflower oil, white wine, rum and grappa. Slowly work in the flour and baking powder and a pinch of salt until you have a firm dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes. Take the dough out and, using a pasta machine or rolling pin, create 12 paper-thin rectangles, 12cm × 6cm. These really do need to be as thin as you can possibly manage. Half fill a deep pan with the vegetable oil and bring it up to 190°C (or until a cube of bread dropped in the oil turns golden in less than a minute). Fry the slices of dough individually until golden brown and crisp. Drain on kitchen paper.
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desserts
desserts
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