Bread cake – recipe of the week

Recipe from Pane & co. by Maria Castellano
Photography: Stefano Scatà

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Serves 8

800 g whole milk
300 g white bread (baguette)
150 g apples (Golden Delicious or Fiji)
150 g golden raisins
150 g granulated sugar
50 g amaretti
50 g candied lemon peel, julienned
30 g cocoa powder
20 g pine nuts
2 eggs
2 teaspoons grappa
1 vanilla bean

Evenly slice the bread and remove the crusts, transfer it to a shallow bowl and cover it with the scalded milk. Allow to cool and set aside.
Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with tepid water. Allow to soak while preparing the other ingredients.
Pulverize the amaretti in a food processor. Peel, core and grate the apple on the large holes of a box grater. In a bowl combine the amaretti, the grated apple, the sugar, the candied lemon peel, the seeds scraped from the vanilla bean, the drained raisins, the cocoa powder, the pine nuts, the lightly beaten eggs and the grappa.
With a whisk, beat the dampened bread with the milk until you achieve a smooth, rather liquid batter.  Combine this with the apple-raisin-spice mixture and mix well.
Pour the batter into a greased Ø 24 cm cake tin and bake in a preheated, non-ventilated oven at 160 °C (320 °F) for 60 minutes. Lower the temerature to 120 °C (250° C) and continue cooking for an additional 90 minutes.