Orange sponge cake. Schiacciata alla Fiorentina

How to make Schiacciata alla Fiorentina . A traditional sweet from the Carnival season of the Italian city of Florence.

It is a dough enriched with orange and very differentiating: a white layer of icing sugar and a cocoa lily flower.

If you go to Florence at this time of year, you will see the windows of its patisseries full of this delight. It is tremendously popular.

The original recipe was made with yeast dough, but nowadays it has evolved and has become a very aromatic sponge cake. Much easier and faster to prepare and equally rich.

Some even dare to fill it with pastry cream , ricotta cheese, chocolate or whipped cream, but as the basic formula there is none.

The shape of the Schiacciata is rectangular, although nothing prevents you from making the schiacciata in another type of mold if you do not have the right one. Its height should not exceed 3 cm. Schiacciata means ” crushed “, hence the theme of the thickness of the cake is respected by all.

It goes without saying that we have been captivated by the fluffiness of its dough and the flavor that the orange gives it. A dessert that directly rivals our orange cake .

It seems to us a perfect sweet for breakfast, snack, to have as a dessert or for any time of the day. That the craving of sweet calls when one least expects it. How and when would you eat it?

Preparation of Schiacciata alla fiorentina

1. Grate the orange and squeeze its juice. We reserve.
2. Mix the wheat flour with the yeast and sieve. We reserve.
3. In a deep and wide container, mix the egg, milk, extra virgin olive oil and sugar.
4. Add the orange juice and the zest.
5. Next, we incorporate the flour mixture with the yeast, tablespoon by tablespoon. We remove gently and enveloping movements, from bottom to top, so that it does not lose the air incorporated with the sieving. We only add more flour and yeast when the previous tablespoon has been mixed well.
6. We line a rectangular mold of about 30 x 20 cm with sulfurized paper, leaving the ends to protrude.
7. Pour the mixture into the mold and gently drop it on the table two or three times. In this way, the bubbles that the dough may contain rise to the surface and disappear, achieving a uniform crumb without alveoli.
8. We introduce the mold in the oven, which we will have preheated to 180º C, with heat above and below.
9. We cook for approximately 40 minutes or until, when you insert a skewer inside, it comes out clean.
10. We remove the mold from the oven and transfer to a metal rack, where we allow to cool before unmolding.
11. Sprinkle the entire surface with icing sugar.
12. We place a template with the fleur de lis on the sugar and sprinkle with the pure cocoa powder. We remove carefully not to drop cocoa on the sugary part and spoil the drawing.
13. We serve immediately.

Be sure to enjoy all the yummy sweets in our dessert recipes . You can see all the photos of the step by step recipe for schiacciata alla fiorentina  in this album.

Tips for a fluffy Schiacciata alla fiorentina

• The dough can be flavored with a little ground saffron. It will not only bring a delicious taste and smell, but also a very distinctive color.
• In some Florence patisseries the surface drawing is replaced by an orange icing. Use the finish that you like the most or make it schiacciata several times varying between one and the other.
• Each oven is a world, so you may have to adjust the indicated time and / or temperature to that of your houses.
• If the surface of our schiacciata begins to brown excessively, we can cover the surface with a sheet of aluminum foil.
• Do not open the oven before 2/3 of the total baking time has elapsed, that is, 26 minutes. Otherwise it will sink and spoil its appearance.