Sbrisolona, crumble cake from Mantua

Sbrisolona, crumble cake from Mantua

Serves 12

A classic crumble cake from Mantua.

Ingredients

  1. 7 oz almond or almond meal

  2. 8.8 oz all purpose flour

  3. 5.3 oz cornmeal

  4. 7 oz caster sugar

  5. 4.2 oz butter

  6. 3.5 oz pork lard

  7. 2 yolks

  8. 1/2 lemon zest

  9. 1/2 vanilla pod seeds

topping

  1. caster sugar

  2. chopped hazelnuts

Instructions

  1. Use a mixer with blades and insert almonds (or almond meal), lemon zest, vanilla seeds and yolks.

  2. Mix a little then add flour and cornmeal, butter, lard and sugar.

  3. Mix again or use your finger tips to put the dough together.

  4. The dough must be very crumbly; in a baking mould put crumbles and make a layer of about 1, 1 and 1/2 inches.

  5. Do not press the dough, just pour crumbles in the pan.

  6. Sprinkle with caster sugar and chopped hazelnuts.

  7. Bake at 356°F for about 1 hour or untill it’s pretty gold.

  8. You can cut it with a knife when cold but of course it will crumble a lot and pieces will not be even.

  9. You can store it in a tin box for more than a week.

Notes

  1. The quantities in this recipe are generous, you can make 2 round pans 10 inches diameter; you can put half the dough, raw, into a ziplock bag and freeze it up to 3 months and bake it later.

Join Joanne and Frank on Facebook at

Everybody Loves Italian

and

Visit us on the web at dev.everybodylovesitalian.com