Bisciola

A dark rye loaf packed with nuts and dried fruit, nearer bread than cake.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

• 200 g rye flour
• 200 g plain flour
• 120 g caster sugar
• 100 g butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 150 ml milk
• 10 g baking powder
• 150 g walnuts, roughly broken
• 100 g dried figs, chopped
• 100 g raisins
• 100 g pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons grappa

Method

1. Soak the raisins in the grappa with a splash of warm water for 30 minutes, then drain them.
2. Mix both flours with the sugar and baking powder. THE RYE IS NOT OPTIONAL and is not there for novelty: it has little gluten, so this bakes dense and close-grained, which is what holds half a kilo of fruit and nuts without collapsing.
3. Rub in the butter, then work in the eggs and milk to a stiff dough.
4. Fold in the walnuts, figs, raisins and pine nuts. The dough will look like it cannot take them; keep going.
5. Shape it into a low oval loaf on a lined tray by hand. No tin — it should spread a little and crack across the top.
6. Bake at 170C for 50 minutes. Cover it loosely with foil after 30 if the nuts on top are darkening.
7. Cool completely before cutting, and cut it thin. It keeps for a fortnight wrapped.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes