Buccellato

A yeasted sweet ring with anise and raisins, proved twice and barely sweet.

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

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white flour
• 120 g caster sugar
• 7 g dried yeast
• 2 eggs
• 180 ml warm milk
• 100 g butter, softened
• 150 g raisins
• 2 teaspoons anise seeds
• 3 tablespoons vin santo or sweet wine
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg yolk, for brushing

Method

1. Soak the raisins in the wine with a splash of warm water for 30 minutes, then drain and pat them dry. Wet raisins make wet holes in the crumb.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, yeast, eggs, milk, anise and salt and knead 10 minutes.
3. Work the softened butter in a piece at a time, then knead another 8 minutes until smooth and elastic.
4. Prove 2 hours until doubled.
5. Knock it back, work the raisins through, and shape it into a ring on a lined tray, pinching the join firmly.
6. PROVE IT A SECOND TIME, 1 hour, until it has visibly puffed. This is a bread rather than a cake and the second prove is where the open crumb comes from; baked after one it is dense and tastes underdone however long it stays in.
7. Brush with the yolk and bake at 180C for 40 minutes, covering it with foil after 25 if it is browning fast.
8. It is only faintly sweet and is meant to be — it is eaten sliced and dipped in the same wine the raisins soaked in.

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