Here we are ready to make some of the wonderful cakes of our Christmas tradition. As often happens I do not know for sure is the recipes are the right ones or if they are reinterpreted by my mum and my grannies.
The first one is the Zelten, a delicious cake full of dried fruits ans spices.
Ingredients for 4 persons
200 ml water; 20 g yeast; 2 tbsp. sugar; 150 g flour; 100 g rye flour; 15 g salt ; 1 tbsp. oil; 1 tsp. cumin; 500 g dried figs, in cubes or strips; 250 g raisins; 120 g sultanas; 120 g mixed nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts), broken into small pieces; 120 g pine nuts; 50 g candied lemon peel; 50 g candied orange peel; 50 ml white wine; 3 tbsp. rum; 1/2 tsp. grated orange zest; 1/2 tsp. cinnamon; 1 pinch clove powder; 1 pinch nutmeg; walnuts, hazelnuts or blanched almonds for decorating.
Preparation
Mix the yeast and sugar together with warm water and let rise for 10 minutes. Add flour, rye flour, salt, oil and cumin; knead well. Cover, and let mixture rise for 30 minutes at 35 degrees Celsius. Marinate the figs, raisins, sultanas, walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, candied orange peel in rum and for at least an hour, Add the orange zest, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
Put the marinated fruits and nuts into the dough Place the dough in a pan and decorate with walnuts and almonds. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the surface become golden. Baking temperature: 170 degrees Celsius
And here something completely different cake: a light and delicate biscuit filled with cherry of abricot jam. Among my top ten cakes let’s make the Cornetti!
What you need: 2 ounces flour; 1 pound butter : work flour with butter. Then add 20 grams brewer’s yeast dissolved in 3 tablespoons of warm milk, a spoonful of sugar and 1 egg yolk
Knead until the dough makes small bubbles. Form a ball that you will wrap in plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour. Roll it out with a rolling pin until it forms a sheet of about 2 mm thick, then cut it into squares of 5 cm on each side.
Place a spoonful of jam in the center of each square and fold it up to obtain a triangle. Seal the edges by pressing them lightly with your fingers, then roll the triangles over themselves. Bend the tips slightly forward to give it a croissant-like shape.
Place the biscuits on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake the biscuits for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 180ºC.
