Venetian Dessert: Bussolà forte di Murano

January 18th 2013 by Leslie

From the Island of Murano Right to Your Table

The Island of Murano - Holiday Venice, Italy

The Bussolà forte is a traditional Christmas dessert from Murano, the famous glass-blowing island of Venice. Its recipe for centuries was a secret of the Muranese families and only in recent years have the local bakeries begun selling this dense, aromatic, calorific treat.

Ingredients:

- 450 g flour

- 2 hg of dark chocolate

- 30 grams of cocoa

- 1 hg of almonds

- 1 hg dried fruit

- 60 grams of pine nuts

- 180 g sugar

- 2 eggs

- 5 tablespoons unrefined molasses

- a pinch of pepper

- a pinch of paprika

- salt

- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

- ¼ cup of dry white wine

- a glass of spiced rum

Bussolà forte from the Island of Murano.

Directions:

(Note that the Muranese like to prepare this treat a couple of days in advance to allow the cake achieve its ideal consistency.)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Begin by mixing the eggs and sugar, then add the cocoa, spices, salt, flour, oil, wine and rum. Next, add the molasses last, being sure to mix vigorously as the dough is very dense. (In the event that the dough becomes to soft, add a little flour. Or, if it becomes too dry, just add a small amount of molasses and wine.) Cut the chocolate into small pieces and add to the mixture along with almost all the pine nuts, almonds and the dried fruit. Form the dough into the shape of a ring.

Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. (If you use a traditional gas oven, you may want to put a pan full of water in the oven to prevent the dough from drying out.) Remove from oven and decorate with the remaining nuts and fruit. Let it cool and ideally store it for a couple of days before happily consuming every last rich crumb. (Or if you can only manage to devour a portion, the bussolà forte can be kept safely for a couple of weeks though it will begin to dry out).

Buon Appetito!

PS: If you try this italian recipe, let us know!

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