Venetian Focaccia: the recipe for soft and delicious Easter sweet bread

The venetian focacciaalso called in dialect leaked either fleetingit’s a sweet typical of the Holy Week tradition. A recipe belonging to the poor kitchen, originally from Treviso, once prepared with a small amount of eggs, butter and sugar, then considered expensive, and then revised over the years, in a richer and more refined key, by the local bakeries and pastry shops.

It is soft and fragrant bread, with a dove-like dough, but without candied fruits, resembling the classic Christmas panettone in appearance. To bring it to the table, in addition to a rather long waiting time, due to the 4 yeastsyou will need to prepare the yeast and a double dough: which will make the final product tall, incredibly soft and delicious.

To give the focaccia its unmistakable aroma, we have enriched it with a highly aromatic mixture of grated citrus peel, honey, rum, vanilla and turmeric powder, to be added to the mix just before the third break. After the last leavening, which will take place directly in the mould, all that remains is to make the characteristic cross cut on the surface, brush the cake with a drop of milk, and then sprinkle with butter and grain of sugar.

In this way you will obtain a well-bubbly brioche, to be enjoyed at Easter breakfast or served at the table at the end of a festive lunch together with a full-bodied mascarpone cream, as is the custom in Veneto, or a good dark chocolate. egg.

There are numerous of this Easter bread variantsdepending on the family or area of ​​origin: it can be flavored with all kinds of liqueur wines, enriched with candied citron or chocolate drops, or cooked in a pigeon press.

Discover how to prepare Venetian focaccia by following the step-by-step procedure and advice. If you liked this recipe, try other Easter desserts.

How to prepare Venetian focaccia

First prepare the yeast: dissolve the brewer’s yeast in the warm milk 1.

Combine the sugar 2.

Add the 00 flour and the manitoba 3mixed.

Stir quickly with a spoon, cover with a sheet of cling film. 4 and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the aromatic mixture by mixing the grated citrus peel, turmeric, rum, honey and vanilla extract in a bowl. 5. Cover with transparent film and reserve.

Prepare the first dough: pour the sifted flours, eggs and sugar into the bowl of the planetary mixer. Combine the yeast 6now doubled in volume, and work with the hook for about 15 minutes.

When the dough is well skewered and does not come unstuck, add the softened butter 7one piece at a time.

Transfer the dough to the work surface and proceed to stretch it, rolling the mixture between your hands until you obtain a smooth and shiny dough. 8.

Place it inside the bowl of the stand mixer. 9cover with a cloth and let rise, in a warm place away from drafts, for about 2 hours or until the initial volume is doubled.

Once the time has elapsed, proceed with the second dough: add the flours to the yeast dough 10sift together.

continue with the eggs eleven.

Then add the aromatic mixture 12sugar and a pinch of salt, and knead again.

When the mass will detach from the walls of the planetarium 13add the butter cut into pieces.

When finished, form a loaf 14.

Put it back in the planetarium bowl. fifteen and let rise, covered with a cloth, until doubled in volume: it will take 4 to 6 hours.

After the third yeast, deflate the dough, form a homogeneous ball and place it in the center of a panettone paper cup. sixteen; then let it rise again.

When the dough has passed the edge of the mold 17let it rest for another 15 minutes and preheat the oven, in static mode, to 170°C.

With a sharp knife, make a cross cut in the center of the cake and paint the surface with a drop of milk. 18.

Sprinkle with granulated sugar and butter flakes 19and place in the preheated oven at 170 °C for about 50 minutes: if the dessert darkens too much halfway through cooking, cover the surface with a sheet of aluminum foil.

After the resting time, remove the Venetian focaccia from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Then cut it into slices twentybring to the table and serve.

Advice

The realization of the focaccia requires a time of approx. 11 mineralsso we recommend you start preparing it first thing in the morning, so you can take it out of the oven at the end of the day.

The original recipe calls for the addition of Spumadoro: a mixture of citrus essential oils and turmeric, produced in Veneto. If you can’t find it, you can replace it with orange and lemon zest, and then use a pinch of turmeric powder which, in addition to perfuming the dough, will give it a beautiful intense yellow color.

For a richer coverage, you can glaze the cake with 1 egg white, beat until stiff with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar, and then decorate the surface with the sprinkles and the almonds whole.

storage

Venetian focaccia is kept at room temperature, under a glass bell, for 2-3 days Maximum.

History and curiosities

The Venetian focaccia seems to have been born from the intuition of a treviso baker who, on the occasion of Easter, wanted to prepare a sweet bread by adding to the dough, in moderate quantities, ingredients considered precious in the past, such as eggs, butter and sugar. Over the years the leakedYeah bad recipeit has become a real delicacy, revisited in an increasingly gourmand key and sought after by local pastry chefs.

Little curiosity. The focaccia was once packed for official engagements: on that occasion the sugared bread was transformed into a veritable casket of sweets ready to receive the ring destined for the bride-to-be. Sprinkled with sparks, she was also the star of the wedding banquets so much so that, reciting a local saying, Blessed are you who still gives you the fugassa with suchero above: lucky the one who still has the cake covered in sugar, indicative of a newly celebrated wedding.