The spongada

A sweet dessert, simple and nutritious
The spongada

The spongada camuna was born as an Easter cake and is typical of the Camonica valley. It is a traditional cake made of a rich mixture of simple and poor ingredients - flour, milk, sugar and eggs - very nutritious, that was created as an offer to the sick and the poor as a sign for health and good wishes.

This sweet loaf is also known as focaccia brenese and is a real speciality, especially if accompanied by the zabaglione of the area, the "rusumada" (whole egg emulsified with sugar and aged Ossola red wine), or, as has initially being done, with a slice of salami.

The preparation of the dessert follows a recipe that can present variations in the proportions of the ingredients according to the traditions and often involves the mixing of two different mixtures in two successive moments.

What we propose here is the recipe of the Salvetti bakery of Malonno (BS)

SPONGADA

360 g Soft wheat flour type 1

180 g. Whole milk

150 g Caster sugar

100 g. Butter

3 eggs

50 g Compressed yeast

8 g. salt

q.s. Vanilla in berries

Put flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the eggs, butter and milk, knead until it forms a very elastic dough. Leave to rest in a covered bowl until doubled in volume. Form balls of the desired weight and let them rise until doubled in volume. Incise the surface of the spongades crosswise, sprinkle with sugar and bake at 170 ° for 15 min.