If you are still not quite a professional in cooking, then the question is: βWhat are candied fruits?β quite common for you. After all, these sugar pieces are not so often used in the preparation of various dishes, so they can be completely unfamiliar to novice housewives. Vegetables and fruits dried in an original way have some features of use. For example, before adding them to the dough, it is better to pre-soak them. As a solution, not only water can be used, but also alcoholic beverages - rum, cognac, wine. Then, during the baking process, the alcohol fumes evaporate, but the specific flavor remains. To learn more about candied fruits, try making some confectionery with them. A dough saturated with various additives is most suitable for Easter baking. This article proposes a recipe for Easter cake with candied fruit, made according to the Italian method. The specificity of cooking consists in the multi-stage addition of products during the fermentation of the dough.
Italian Easter cake with candied fruit
For baking according to the proposed recipe, a special cross-shaped paper form is required. You can also use ordinary round. The taste characteristics of the dish from this will not change at all.
Essential Ingredients
For the test you will need the following products:
- flour - 350 g;
- sugar - half a glass;
- butter - 100 g;
- two eggs and a yolk;
- fresh yeast - 20 g;
- water - 20 ml;
- milk - 50 ml;
- candied fruits - 65 g;
- raisins - 50 g;
- zest of one lemon;
- a pinch of salt;
- a pack of vanillin.
For decoration:
- peeled almonds - 50 g;
- sugar - 50 g;
- egg white ;
- rice paddy - 80 g.
Cooking
- Crush the yeast into a bowl and fill with warmed milk. Pour a little flour (50 g) into the mass. After stirring, put in a warm place for half an hour.
- Add two eggs, an incomplete glass of flour, warm water and leave for another forty-five minutes.
- After the dough comes up, you need to add some of the products again. Pour in flour (75 g), half sugar and add softened butter. After stirring with a spoon, leave to ferment for another half hour.
- Soak raisins and candied fruits in water for 10 minutes. After draining on a colander, pour them into the dough. The remaining products are added there: sugar, yolk, flour, butter, salt, lemon peel, vanilla.
- Divide well-mixed smooth dough into two parts to make it more convenient to lay in a cross shape. Having carefully laid the mass, cover the cake blank with a towel. The dough should double in volume. This may take up to an hour and a half.
- While the Easter cake rises, prepare the icing. To do this, beat the almonds with sugar and egg white in a food processor.
- Before baking, spread the dough on top with the prepared nut mass and garnish with popped rice and whole grains.
- Bake for 45 minutes at a temperature of 180-200 degrees.
- Ready cake can not be exempted from a special paper form. When using other containers, carefully transfer the pastries to a wooden shelf for cooling.
Fragrant Baking
Having prepared the Easter cake, you have learned not in practice what candied fruits are, how to use them when baking sweet muffin. They can also be part of other products - rolls, muffins or pies. After cooking several different dishes, you will no longer ask what candied fruits are, but you can share useful tips yourself.