Easter is tomorrow and the festivity brings along all the pastries and desserts that are a classic of this period of the year. In Italy it is very common to find the chocolate egg, or the traditional colomba, a dove shaped pastry covered with almond and sugar icing. In addition you can find all the regional cakes and pastries that each region preserves with its culinary traditions. Tuscany has the Easter Schiacciata. Schiacciata is tipically a salty food (like the one in Chianciano), but in Tuscany it becomes a sweet one, a delicate sponge cake perfect to eat at breakfast. This recipe was born in the provinces of Pisa and Livorno by the ingenuity of peasant culture. It used to be the dessert of the poor people, eaten during the period going from the beginning of Lent to Pentecost. It is a sponge cake flavored with spices, perfect along a sweet wine, if eaten as a dessert. The ancient recipe of Tuscan schiacciata calls for a long and complicated procedure requiring three risings and a long time. Here is a shortened recipe with an easier procedure that does not spoil the result in the least.
Ingredients:
- 500 grams of flour
- 250 grams sugar
- 1 tablespoon of crushed anise seeds
- 80 grams of butter
- 30 grams of fresh yeast
- 1 orange
- 5 eggs
- A pinch of salt
Preparation:
Melt the yeast in a cup of hot water. Careful not to heat the water too much, as you may kill the yeast. Test it with your fingers. If you can stand the heat comfortably, then the temperature is right. Add a little milk and sugar to the water before melting in the yeast to increase the effect. Now mix the flour with the dissolved yeast, add the pinch of salt, then work the dough as you would when making bread. After kneading the dough thoroughly, set it to rise for a couple of hours in a warm place sheltered from drafts. If you have an oven with a light available, set the dough in a bowl, cover it with a clean cloth, set it in the oven and turn just the light on. The heat of the light will speed up the rising process a bit.
After the two hours have passed, keep kneading the dough mixing in 4 of the 5 eggs. Also add the butter, crushed anise seeds and the orange peel. This is an optional ingredient, but it improves the recipe very much. Keep working the dough until it is homogeneous. Then smear a thin layer of butter on a small baking pan with high sides and set the dough in it. Beat the remaining egg and with a cooking brush cover the top of the dough with it, then bake for about an hour in the heated oven at 180 Celsius (356 Fahrenheit).
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