Christmas is all about magic, traditions and... sweets! With the Sweet Package we will guide you on a journey through two of the most fascinating regions of Italy, Sicily and Veneto , discovering three Christmas delicacies that tell stories of flavors and culture.
1. Buccellato (Sicily)
Ingredients:
For the pasta:
· 500 g flour
· 275 g butter
· 175 g sugar
· 2 tablespoons Marsala
· 3 eggs
· 1 teaspoon salt grated orange zest
For the filling:
· 250 g dried figs
· 80 g pumpkin jam
· 100 gr toasted almonds 1
· 00 gr walnut kernels
· 25 g pistachios
· 25 g dark chocolate
· 80 ml Marsala raisins
· 2 cloves, crushed, cinnamon powder
· grated zest of 1 orange
Start with the dough: make a well with the flour, pour in all the ingredients and work first with a fork and then with your hands. Keep a little milk for last and measure it according to need, working the dough until you get a consistent and homogeneous dough. Leave to rest in the fridge.
Soak the figs in hot water, drain them, chop them finely with a knife and toast them over a low heat together with the jam and honey. Remove the mixture from the heat, add the other ingredients together with the roughly chopped dried fruit and chocolate, mix well.
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin until it forms a rectangle, place the filling in the center, moisten one side of the rectangle with beaten egg and close the dough around the filling to form a ring. Prick the buccellato with the appropriate tweezers or, alternatively, with the prongs of a fork, brush with beaten egg and bake at 180 °C until golden brown.
Allow the buccellato to cool, then glaze it with neutral gelatine and decorate with candied fruit or sugar devils.
2. Pandoro (Venetian)
Ingredients
· 630 g strong flour
· about 200 g butter
· 200 g granulated sugar
· 50 g icing sugar
· 30 g brewer's yeast
· 8 eggs
· 1 teaspoon of salt the grated rind of a lemon
· 1 vanilla pod half a glass of cream
Start by preparing the so-called lievitino, that is, the base with which to form the subsequent doughs.
In a bowl, put 75 g of flour and 10 g of sugar, add the yeast dissolved in a little warm milk and an egg yolk. Mix the ingredients well, place the bowl in a warm place (about 20 °C) and let it rise for a couple of hours.
Combine 160g of flour, 25g of barely soft butter, 90g of sugar and three egg yolks, mix the ingredients well and leave to rise for another 2 hours.
Add 375 g of flour, 40 g of barely soft butter, 75 g of sugar, a whole egg and three egg yolks, mix the ingredients well and leave to rise for another 2 hours.
After this time, return the dough to the pastry board and work it vigorously, incorporating the cream, salt, lemon zest and vanilla seeds. The dough should be just a little softer than bread dough. Weigh it and calculate 150 g of butter for every kilo. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to form a fairly regular square, distribute the soft butter in the center and bring the four corners of the square back to the center so as to close the pastry, taking care to close the edges well so as to avoid any butter leaking out.
Gently roll out into a rectangle, fold in three, roll out again, fold in the same way and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Roll out again, fold in three, roll out again, fold in three and let it rest in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.
Every time the dough goes into the fridge, place it in a plastic food bag so that it does not take on other odors. Roll out the dough once more, fold the edges towards the center and form a ball by turning the edges inward. When the ball is formed, grease your hands with butter and rotate the dough on the table trying to round it as much as possible.
Form two balls from the dough and place them in the pandoro molds already brushed with butter, place them in a warm place and leave to rise until the dome comes out of the edge.
Place a small bowl of water on a baking tray in the lower part of the oven and bake the pandoro in a preheated static oven at 180°C for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 160°C and leave to cook for another 30 minutes or so.
Before taking the pandoro out of the oven, use a toothpick to check whether it is cooked through.
Once ready, take them out of the oven, place them on a napkin and let them cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
3. Sicilian Torrone and Venetian Fregolotta
Ingredients:
· 500 g sugar
· 250 gr sesame seeds
· 150 g honey
· seed oil
· ½ lemon
Pour the honey into a pan (preferably copper) and melt it slowly over a low heat, then add the sugar, continuing to stir.
When the mixture reaches boiling point, add the sesame seeds and stir until it reaches a nice amber color.
Once cooked, pour the mixture onto a marble surface greased with seed oil or, if you don't have marble, a work surface lined with baking paper, and level the surface to a thickness of about 1 cm using a well-oiled spatula or half a lemon stuck on a fork.
Once the cubbaita has cooled, cut it into a diamond or rectangle shape and leave to cool .
Discover the recipes and history of typical Sicilian and Venetian sweets with the Sweet Package!
Not only will you be able to try your hand at preparing these delights thanks to authentic recipes , but you will also be able to immerse yourself in a journey through time, exploring the origins and curiosities that make these desserts unique.
Make your Christmas special with the taste of the traditions of Veneto and Sicily: the Sweet Package awaits you!
