This loaf cake made of bread is a speciality from Brianza in Lombardy and is known and loved throughout Italy. The ingredients of the loaf cake vary depending on the occasion and the season. From lemon zest and candied fruit to chocolate, nuts and fresh apples.
Praise for the hard bread
In Italy, throwing away food is not just considered a waste: it is tantamount to a sin, especially when it comes to bread. But it was precisely bread that often became hard in the past. Unlike in the cities, bread was only baked once a week in the countryside. Light bread was then sold the very next day at half price. When it was hard after a few days, it was simply dipped in warm milk for breakfast, and at lunchtime or in the evening it was added to hot soup, such as panada. The most delicious use of leftover bread, however, was likely bread cake with chocolate and almonds.
The gift from the fairies
Bread has an important place in Italy. It is said that it was fairies who taught women in Sardinia to make bread. The fairies mixed the ground wheat of the last harvest with the purest water from the spring of the Janas caves in the heart of Barbagia. To this was added a mysterious ingredient called madriga. The fairies gave the madriga to the women – with the task of keeping it alive by feeding it with water and flour, and sharing it with others. Even today in Sardinia, on some feast days, this legend is commemorated and bread is traditionally prepared together.
📖 Recipe
Chocolate and Chestnut Loaf Cake
Equipment
- 1 baking tin larg - approx. 20x40 cm or Ø 26 cm
Ingredients
- 500 g bread, hard white - without crust
- 500 ml milk
- 30 g cocoa
- 1 egg
- 120 g chestnuts, cooked
- 100 g chocolate
- 100 g nuts
- 100 g butter, soft
- 100 g sugar
- 1 TL vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 100 g almonds, flaked
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180° C. Heat the milk and soak the bread in it, leave to soak for 15 minutes. Lightly toast the nuts in a pan without fat, allow to cool and chop a little. Also cut the chestnuts and chocolate into smaller pieces.
- Add all the ingredients, apart from the almonds, to the soaked bread and mix carefully. Grease the baking tin with butter and fill with the dough. Sprinkle with the almonds and bake for about 50 minutes. Do the toothpick test. The toothpick must be completely dry.
- Allow the bread cake to cool before cutting it. Serve cold from the fridge or at room temperature.
Nutrition
Buon appetito!
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