Name: Yeast Cake Stuffed with Raisins (Per Fare Tortiglione Ripieno)
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 8 fl oz/1 cup/250 ml sweet white wine; 4½ oz/1 cup/140 g currants; 8 oz/1½ cups/250 g pitted dates, chopped; 2½ oz/⅓ cup 75 g butter or lard, melted (for brushing); 1 egg, beaten with ½ tsp salt (for glaze – optional); 1 tsp ground nutmeg; 1 tbsp ground cinnamon; 3¼ oz/½ cup/100 g sugar; 2 oz ¼ cup/60 g butter, cut in pieces; ½ tsp ground cloves; 14 oz/3½ cups/450 g flour; 4 fl oz/½ cup/125 ml lukewarm water; confectioners’/icing sugar (for sprinkling); ½ oz/15 g compressed yeast, or ¼ oz/7 g dry yeast; 1 tbsp rosewater; 2 oz/¼ cup 160 g butter or lard, melted; 2 tbsp rosewater; 3 egg yolks; ½ tsp salt

Preparation info

Serves
8

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Great Cooks and Their Recipes

By Anne Willan

Published 1977

About

Scappi’s varied recipes for tortiglioni show how advanced his pastries had become. This particular recipe closely resembles a coffee or tea cake. Scappi’s instructions are rather hard to follow, but his aim is obviously to produce a rich, spiced mixture between layers of thin yeast dough.

Knead together 2 pounds flour, 6 egg yolks, 2 ounces rose water, 1 ounce yeast dissolved in lukewarm water, and 4 ounces fresh butter or lard that does not smell bad, and quite a bit of salt, for h