Zelten

A flat Trentino fruit loaf that is mostly fruit, with the dough as binding.

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

Ingredients

• 300 g dried figs, chopped
• 200 g raisins
• 150 g walnuts, broken
• 100 g pine nuts
• 100 g candied peel
• 100 ml grappa
• 200 g rye flour
• 100 g plain flour
• 100 g caster sugar
• 7 g fresh yeast
• 150 ml warm milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• whole almonds, to decorate

Method

1. Soak all the dried fruit in the grappa overnight, covered. It should take up nearly all of it.
2. Make a small dough with both flours, the sugar, yeast, milk and salt, and prove it 1 hour.
3. WORK THE FRUIT AND NUTS IN UNTIL THE DOUGH IS BARELY HOLDING IT. By weight the fruit is more than twice the flour — this is a loaf where the dough is binding rather than the substance, and it will feel wrong in the hands.
4. Shape it FLAT, about 3 cm thick, as an oval on a lined tray. It does not rise much and a tall shape stays raw.
5. Press whole almonds into the surface in a pattern.
6. Prove 45 minutes, then bake at 160C for 1 hour. Low, because the surface nuts and fruit burn long before the middle sets.
7. WRAP IT AND KEEP IT TWO WEEKS before eating. It is dry and sharp with grappa on the day it is made, and the fruit only settles into the crumb with time. It keeps for months.

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