Buccellato - the typical Sicilian dessert for Christmas

The word Buccellato comes from the latin word buccellatum meaning half-eaten (or cucciddatu in Sicilian slang). It is a typical dessert for Christmas served all over the island. Cooked in the oven, it keeps for long and is used to eat it during all Christmas holidays. The home-made version may be covered with icing.

For the dough:
500 gr of wheat flour
500 gr of butter
200 gr of sugar
4 eggs
a glass of milk

For the stuffing:
300 gr of dried figs
200 gr of candied pumpkin in cubes
150 gr of walnuts
150 gr of raisins
50 gr of plain chocolate
50 of pistaches
150 gr of ground almonds
1 egg
2 cloves
cinnamon
ground black pepper

Preparing the dough:

Process the butter as a cream and add it to the flavour, the eggs, the sugar and the glass of milk. Prepare two pieces of dough, roll out them as a thick puff pastry and cut out two round shapes.

Preparing the filling:

Cut the dried figs in small pieces, cut roughly the pistaches, the almonds and the walnuts. In a bowl mix these ingredients with some slivers of plain chocolate, the raisins and the cubes of candied pumpkin. Add the egg, a bit of cinnamon, half a spoon of ground black pepper and the 2 cloves. Mix all ingredients to obtain a dense filling.

Cut the centre of the puff pastry with a round shape and put the filling on. Then, cover the filling with the second puff pastry so to get a ring. For accomplished cooks cut the pastry into several strips and create a sort of net to cover the filling.

Dust the buccellato with the chopped pistach and cook in the oven on a moderate flame for about 30 minutes.

When cold, add some candied fruit on top. Slice and serve it.

Buon appetito!