Sbrisolona

I don’t enjoy eating a big breakfast, I prefer fresh juice, coffee and little piece of pastry. The juice is always either orange, with lots of pulp, or apricot. The coffee, always a single espresso to start followed by a cappuccino an hour later. The pastry however is always a little different. My favourite is Crostata Marmellata, but a very close second is this, Sbrisolona. I had forgotten however until recently that is was such a favourite because I hadn’t had it in so long. I was reminded of this simple recipe and from that moment I couldn’t get the taste memory out of my mind.

While living in a small village outside of Cremona in Lombardia, I was first introduced to the haphazardly broken pieces of this pastry that is not quite a cookie and not quite a cake. At the caffe in Cremona you simply pointed to the piece you wanted, big or small, and the clerk weighed it for pricing. It was the perfect accompaniment to my first espresso of the day. Loaded with almonds and left to air dry to develop texture, I came back each morning for another piece, a little bigger each time admittedly. I was fortunate to also have tried this in someone’s home, Zia Guilia, the aunt of the family I was living with made it after I droned on about the version from the caffe. She included dark chocolate in her version, whereas the caffe added a little orange zest to their dough. Both were similar in texture, base ingredients and method but they added a personal touch to make it their own.

I have combined both of these versions, adding orange zest to the dough and a layer of very dark chocolate pieces to the middle; it is my adaptation but its a tribute to both the caffe in Cremona and Zia Guilia.

I will make this often and won’t soon forgot again how much I love it, almost as much as the crostata!

INGREDIENTS

100 grams whole blanched almonds

100 grams ground almond meal

150 grams all purpose flour

150 grams semolina flour

150 grams white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 large egg yolks

Grated zest of 1 large orange

225 grams soft unsalted butter

1 bar of best quality dark chocolate (70%+)

50 grams whole natural almonds

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350. Place all of the ingredients except for the chocolate and the whole (skin on) natural almonds in a mixer bowl and turn on low speed. Mix until a soft crumble forms.

Firmly press 3/4 of the dough into a large tart tin or baking tin of your choice. Break the chocolate in to small pieces and scatter across the base.

Sprinkle the remaining dough over the chocolate and use your fingertips to gently press down a bit. Top with the whole natural almonds.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool completely, ideally overnight. I like to leave it out to dry for a few days, breaking off a piece each morning.