For Christmas, you can make a delicious dessert, that is also a wonderful centerpiece! Try with Sonia the Angelica cake, and you’ll fall in love with it… merry Christmas!
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I’ll make my holiday table special with an original centerpiece… follow me, I’ll show you what I have in mind! I’ll prepare the angelica cake, a fluffy yeast-leavened ring cake, filled with dark chocolate chips; the recipe is a bit complicated, but the result will be worth it. Let’s start with the sponge: pour the lukewarm water into a bowl, dissolve the malt, or a teaspoon of sugar if you don’t have it, then add the crumbled yeast, let it dissolve, and finally the flour.
Once the ingredients are blended together, knead the sponge dough on a pastry board or work surface for a few minutes, until smooth, as you can see. Now transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with cling film… and let it rise in a warm place for at least half an hour, for example you can place it in the turned off oven, with the light on.
The sponge is almost ready, so now we’ll prepare the dough and then we’ll fold them together: put the flour in a bowl, while in a jug combine the milk… 3 egg yolks, break them up, and the sugar… let it dissolve, and finally add the salt. Now pour the mixture into the flour, and add the diced butter, that is at room temperature, so it’s soft. Knead everything until you have a smooth and even dough.
Here we are, now add the dough to the sponge dough, which has risen; so knead for a few minutes to blend the 2 mixtures together, until smooth and even… when the final dough is ready, take a bowl, which has been previously buttered, put in the dough, cover with cling film or with a clean cloth, and let it rise for at least 2 hours in a warm place, keep in mind that it should double in volume.
Here’s our leavened dough… now roll it out into a rectangle, about 1/10 inch (2-3 mm) thick; you can’t knead the dough anymore, just roll it out into a rectangle, perhaps sprinkling a little flour on the work surface.
This is our sheet of pastry dough, now brush the surface with melted butter, after that sprinkle the chocolate chips all over, leaving an edge of about 2 inches (5 cm) uncovered. Then roll it up from the long side. The angelica cake can be filled also with raisins, pine nuts, orange zest or candied fruit, choose what you like most. With the seam facing down… cut the roll in half lengthwise; braid the 2 halves together, with the cut side facing up… don’t worry, we’ll put the chocolate chips back later… when you have a braid like this, form it into a ring. Transfer the ring cake to a baking dish, lined with parchment paper.
Then brush the whole ring cake with the remaining melted butter, and let it rise for at least 30-40 minutes or until doubled in volume.
When the angelica cake has doubled in volume, bake at 350°F (180°C) for about 40 minutes.
While the cake is baking, we can make the glaze, so put an egg white at room-temperature in a bowl and beat with the powdered sugar, until white and thick.
Now we’ll garnish the freshly baked angelica cake; place the glaze in a pastry bag, otherwise you can use a spoon or a syringe, and pipe a thin stream to give it an elegant look.
Look at my beautiful centrepiece… I wish you all the best for this holiday season and see you next videorecipe with Giallozafferano!
I used:
For the sponge
• 1 cup (135 g) bread flour
• 5 tbsp (75 ml) water
• just under ½ oz (13 g) fresh yeast
• 1 tsp of malt (or sugar) For the dough
• 3 cups (400 g) bread flour
• 3,5 oz (100 g) chocolate chips
• ½ cup (120 ml) milk
• ½ cup (120 g) butter
• 1/3 cup (75 g) sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 egg yolks
For garnishing:
• 1 ¼ cups (150 g) powdered sugar
• 1 egg white
• For brushing ¼ cup (50 g) butter