Buccellati means riddled, and refers to the texture of this ring cake, which is from the Lunigiana area in Tuscany. The recipe is, as Pellegrino Artusi notes, involved. He also proposes an easier version for family use.
Ingredients:
- 12 3/4 cups (1.5 k) cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 pound yeast (see below)
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup lard
- 1 3/4 cups milk
- 7/8 cup Marsala
- 2 tablespoons of rum
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Grated lemon zest
Preparation:
If you measure the rest of the ingredients precisely, the flour will be sufficient to produce a dough of the proper consistency. As I've said before, by yeast I mean what is used as a starter for making bread -- you should purchase it from your baker.
The lemon should be from the garden (Artusi lived in Tuscany, which is beyond the northern range of the lemon tree. People who could afford to grew (and still grow) lemon trees in earthenware pots, keeping them outside in the summer and transferring them indoors in the fall).
Dissolve the yeast cake in a bowl with half the milk, adding enough flour to make a moderately firm dough. Put the remaining flour in another bowl and set the dough it too, making sure it's covered by at least a finger-thick layer of flour. Put the bowl in a draft free, tepid place and let the dough rise. Depending upon the season, from eight to ten hours will be necessary. Tamp the dough down, put it into a bowl by itself, and add the remaining milk and enough flour to absorb the milk. Allow the dough to rise again, a process that will take as long as it did the first time. Place it on your work surface, and knead in the rest of the flour and the remaining ingredients, working the dough well so that it will be homogeneous.
Prepare some iron or tinned copper cookie sheets by greasing and flouring them. Place rings of the dough on the pans, making them of whatever size you want, but being sure to separate them well. Let the rings rise in the kitchen or some other warm place, and when they are risen, but not overly much (don't let them more than double in volume), make long cuts in the surfaces of the loaves with the point of a knife, brush them with egg yolk, and dust them with sugar.
Bake the ciambelle in a moderately warm oven. (Artusi was writing before oven thermometers; I'd suggest a 380 degree F oven for about 45 minutes or until done, at which point it should sound hollow if tapped lightly with a finger.)
Using half the ingredients, you'll be able to make four ciambelle weighing about 3/4 of a pound apiece, assuming you don't want to make more smaller ones.
Artusi closes with the admonition that during the winter you should set the dough to rise in the caldana, a warming chamber built into the flue of the kitchen fireplace or stove. Since few modern houses have caldane, I suggest you put the dough to rise in a barely warm oven if the room is cold.
The lemon should be from the garden (Artusi lived in Tuscany, which is beyond the northern range of the lemon tree. People who could afford to grew (and still grow) lemon trees in earthenware pots, keeping them outside in the summer and transferring them indoors in the fall).
Dissolve the yeast cake in a bowl with half the milk, adding enough flour to make a moderately firm dough. Put the remaining flour in another bowl and set the dough it too, making sure it's covered by at least a finger-thick layer of flour. Put the bowl in a draft free, tepid place and let the dough rise. Depending upon the season, from eight to ten hours will be necessary. Tamp the dough down, put it into a bowl by itself, and add the remaining milk and enough flour to absorb the milk. Allow the dough to rise again, a process that will take as long as it did the first time. Place it on your work surface, and knead in the rest of the flour and the remaining ingredients, working the dough well so that it will be homogeneous.
Prepare some iron or tinned copper cookie sheets by greasing and flouring them. Place rings of the dough on the pans, making them of whatever size you want, but being sure to separate them well. Let the rings rise in the kitchen or some other warm place, and when they are risen, but not overly much (don't let them more than double in volume), make long cuts in the surfaces of the loaves with the point of a knife, brush them with egg yolk, and dust them with sugar.
Bake the ciambelle in a moderately warm oven. (Artusi was writing before oven thermometers; I'd suggest a 380 degree F oven for about 45 minutes or until done, at which point it should sound hollow if tapped lightly with a finger.)
Using half the ingredients, you'll be able to make four ciambelle weighing about 3/4 of a pound apiece, assuming you don't want to make more smaller ones.
Artusi closes with the admonition that during the winter you should set the dough to rise in the caldana, a warming chamber built into the flue of the kitchen fireplace or stove. Since few modern houses have caldane, I suggest you put the dough to rise in a barely warm oven if the room is cold.
