Sbrisolona got its name from Brisa that means "crumb" in Mantova dialect, where it comes from. This cake in fact has the peculiarity to crumble and break apart. You don't slice it. You break it from the center with the tip of a knife.
It's a dry cake, almost like a biscotto texture, and it is traditionally moistened with grappa.
It's a very easy cake that you can prepare in 10' and a great gift to take to friends. I tried a few recipes (basically the ingredients were the same but the method was different) and this is the perfect one. It's my mom's friend Daniela recipe and she's the Sbrisolona master. there is no dinner with her without her famous cake. The only downside is that....it will be gone at the end of the dinner, no matter how many guests you have ;-)
INGREDIENTS: (8inches-20 cm cake)
100g butter room temp
100g white sugar
100g all-purpose flour
100g cornmeal
120g almonds (unroasted and unpeeled)
1 egg yolk
a pinch of salt
lemon zest
INSTRUCTIONS:
mix the soft butter with the sugar and the salt
add the yolk and the two flours and mix
add lemon zest
chop the almonds roughly and add them
wet and squeeze a piece of parchment paper and put it into your cake mold
take your dough and crumble it without compacting it and create a uniform layer
bake for 40/45 minutes at 320F/160C in the middle rack till golden brown on top. If it gets to dark cover the surface with some foil
wait till it cools off and add few whole almonds to garnish and a spoon of white sugar
If you don't finish the whole cake once you try a bite, crumb after crumb tell me the secret!