Sbrisolona

Sbrisolona is a typical cake from the North of Italy, in particular from Mantova. Its name derives from the word "brisa" which in the dialect spoken in Mantova means crumble. The cake in fact is very crumbley!

It was originally made with suet rather than butter, and most recipes still have half butter half suet in their ingredients, this recipe does not use suet, but only butter.  It is a very quick and easy cake to make and lasts several days. 

We have two recipes for this cake, both nice, you can pick and choose!

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RECIPE 1

Ingredients:

250g flour
150g fine maze flour
200g almonds
200g sugar
2 egg yolks
210 g butter
1 lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation


Preheat the oven at 180 C .

Grind 150 g of the almonds in a food processor and leave 50 g whole.

In a bowl, or in your planetary mixer, add the flour, fine maze flour (corn meal), sugar,  grind almonds, butter, grated lemon zest and mix until the butter is mixed with the other ingredients and you have a crumble.  Add the egg yolks  and mix it all quickly.

The mixture should be very airy and ‘sandy’.

Taking care not to compress it, put the mixture by hand into a shallow buttered cake pan (30 cm diameter).

Decorate with whole almonds. Bake in a oven at 180°C for 50 minutes. Just out of the oven sprinkle with the sugar.

Let the cake cool before slicing.

This cake does not slice well, it will crumble, but that is its main characteristic.


RECIPE 2

Ingredients:

200 g 00 Flour
200 g Fine Cornmeal (fumetto)
150 g Ground Almond
50 g Whole Almonds with their skins
200 g White Granulated Sugar (or Demerara Sugar)
200 g  Butter, soft
1 grated Lemon Rind
2 Egg Yolks
beans of  1 Vanilla Pod (optional)

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 160C if fan or 180C if static.

2a.  With a food processor:

• Put all the dry ingredients (i.e. 00 Flour, Ground Almond White and 2/3of the Granulated Sugar) in the food processor and mix for few seconds.
• Add the soft Butter, Lemon Rind, Egg Yolks and the Vanilla beans and mix for few seconds until the mixture resembles a “sandy” texture.

2b.  By hand:

• Tip the 00 Flour, Ground Almond White and 2/3of the Granulated Sugar into a large bowl. 
• Mix the soft Butter , Lemon Rind, Egg Yolks and the Vanilla beans together
• Rub bowl using your fingertips to make a light breadcrumb texture. Do not overwork it or the crumble will become heavy.

3. Greased a 32cm in diameter cake dish.
4. Place the mixture evenly on the cake dish without pressing it
5. Sprinkle the Whole Almonds and Sugar on the top.

6. Cook for 40 minutes in a Fan assisted oven and 50 minutes in a static oven or until the top has a nice golden colour