As the Italian tradition wants for the Easter breakfast different variations of sweet pizza are in the menu (expecially in south-central Italy). My favorite one is the tortaro. It’s sweet and soft, it has a delicate scent of anise liqueur and, as its ‘simlars’ externally looks like a cake. The main difference is that inside you will not find candied fruit or cheese as in the other recipes. It has nothing to envy to other Easter cakes, and is not so easy to prepare (requires a lot of care and attention).
This sweet pizza comes from my maternal grandmother, it was a sweet Easter ritual. She used to prepare ingredients the day before and eagerly wait the time needed to them to rise. The rising is in fact a very delicate phase (and not taken for granted!), it may take several hours and determines the success and goodness of the tortaro. She covered the pizza with heavy wool blankets and waits for the leavening with the same patience and anxiety of a woman during pregnancy.
The preparation of this traditional dessert therefore requires love and commitment, but they are amply rewarded by the unique flavor of the tortaro. Such traditional pizza is served at the table with hard-boiled eggs, corallina (italian salami), chocolate and a glass of Vin Santo (holy wine).
Ingredients
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Recipe: Easter dessert
- 1 kg of flour and a half
- 350 gr of sugar
- 330 ml of milk
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 1 sachet of vanilla
- 1 block of brewer’s yeast
- ½ glass of Alchermes
- 1 vial of rum
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 lemon
- Aniseed seeds
- Cinnamon powder
Cousine: Italian (typical from ciociaria area)
Serving: 2 tortari (pizza)
5 eggs
Directions
Beat the eggs with the sugar and the grated lemon peel. Add the olive oil, salt, anise, cinnamon, rum, vanilla and Alcherms and mix. Carefully melt the yeast in warm milk and add it to the mixture.
Gradually add the flour, blending constantly, until the ingredients are thoroughly blended. Divide the dough into two pans and let them rise until it has reached twice the initial volume.
Bake at 160 ° for an hour. When the surface of the desserts will be crisp, remove from the oven and let them cool.
Recommendations
For the dough I use the molds in paper disposable, they are easy to use and perfect because can contain the raised dough. The leavening process can take a whole day (if not more!): Do not be hasty, and let stand the desserts in the hottest part of the house, remember to cover them with a warm blanket.
If you want to keep for as long as the Easter atmosphere, cut Tortaro into slices, put them in different bags and store in the freezer. Pull them out a couple of hours before eating. They will be softs and fragrant as freshly baked!