Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Crescia

At last I have a little time to finish to post my Easter recipes! This 'crescia' was a great success, so I'm going to give you the recipe even though Easter is long gone. In the end, it's just a bread, you can make it anytime.
Traditionally, though, it's eaten for Easter breakfast in Naples region, with cheese and ham (that's how you should serve it).

Crescia
This recipe was taken from Cooker.net and it was written by Clamilla.
Ingredients:
1 lb flour
1 cup parmigiano grated
2/3 cup olive oil
5 eggs
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup warm milk
1 tsp sugar
~1 tbsp salt
pepper
Procedure:
Dissolve yeast in milk, add sugar. Mix flour and cheese, make a hole in the center and pour the oil, salt, pepper, eggs, and the dissolved yeast. Mix, and then knead for ten minutes. Add flour if you need, but you shouldn't need too much of it.
Make a ball with the dough, put it in a buttered and floured pan with high borders. Cover and let raise in the oven at the lowest possible setting (200F or so) for 2 hours. Now, pay attention: I didn't realize how much it would raise. I should have, I know: 'crescia' in Italian is related to 'crescere', which means 'to grow'. So after two hours my 'crescia' almost reached the top of the oven, and I had to lower the rack in a position closer to the bottom. This messed up the rising a little bit. You should not have to move the crescia once it started raising. Anyway, the result was still delicious, but I guess it could have been even fluffier. So, don't move it, and after two hours increase the temperature to 250 F for 10 min, and then bring it to 350 for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry if you poke it. When you take the crescia out from the oven, flip it and let it deflate. Mine was harder on the outside, and it was alrady deflated because of my earlier move, so I didn't have to do this step. I guess mine wasn't the best crescia ever, but considering that neither I nor my guest ever tried the original one, we were all very satisfied of the result. Let me know if you try this!

1 comment:

ldhitch said...

I found your blog when I searched fro a crescia recipe. My nona always used pecorino in hers. She is from gubbio.
I am glad you are posting recipes. I will let you know if I use any of them!
Buona Pasqua!

Karen from Ohio