Gubana, Brioche of Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Antonietta 09/12/2020Gubana is a typical filled brioche of Friuli Venezia Giulia and nearby areas, its peculiarity is the combination with Grappa as well as dried fruit such as walnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts and others spicies.
12 servings.
Brioche dough ingredients:
- 440 g all pourpose flour,
- 120 g soft butter,
- 100 g sugar,
- 40 g honey,
- 2 whole eggs plus 2 egg yolks,
- 80 ml milk,
- 20 g brewer’s yeast,
- 4 g salt,
- vanillin powder,
- 1 cup of all pourpose flour for handling.
Filling ingredients:
- 250 walnut kernels,
- 120 g sugar,
- 120 g raisins,
- 80 g amaretti (almond macaroons),
- 60 g biscuits,
- 60 g pine nuts,
- 40 g butter,
- 1 grated lemon peel,
- 100 ml Grappa (more or less),
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon,
- 1 pinch of salt,
- 2 tbsp of water,
- 1 tsp of vinegar.
Decoration:
- 1 egg to brush the surface,
- 2 tablespoon of sugar (more or less).
Direction.
Make the brioche dough (first step):
dissolve the brewer’s yeast in lukewarm milk, add half of flour, the eggs and yolks, half of sugar, half of salt and mix well until you have combined all the ingredients, then put the dough on the flowred surface and kneads it with handling flour and a spatula until get a smoothy even if sticky, then put onto bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 60 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
Pour the filling sugar into a pan, add two tablespoons of water and one teaspoon of vinegar and when the sugar begins to melt, add half of the walnut kernels and half of the hazelnut, so caramelize them over very low heat. Then grease a baking pan with a little bit of oil and spread all around to cool. Melt the butter in the same pan and toast the pine nuts over very low heat.
Continue preparing the filling by chopping the biscuits and amaretti and pouring all into a large bowl,
add also chopped caramelized walnuts and hazelnuts and raisins (soaked in Grappa). Add also the pine nuts and their cooking butter, salt, grated lemon peel and finally a teaspoon of cinnamon powder and mix all also with your hands if needed and add the Grappa until you have a soft filling (but not too much). Let it stand 30 minutes in cool place.
Make the brioche (second step):
after 60 minutes, add all the remaining ingredients to the pre-dough and knead very well and vigorously (at least for 20 minutes or 10 minutes if you use a food processor) until it must become smooth, homogeneous and elastic then put in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes rolled out the brioche dough in the shape of 5 mm thick rectangle.
Filling.
Put the filling on the entire surface of the brioche rectangle, if necessary soften it with Grappa, add flakes of butter, moisten the contour with a brush wet with water then roll up the filled rectangle and turn it like a donut, so put it in 30 cm diameter cake pan greased with butter and let it rise until doubled.
When Gubana brioche has risen then beat an egg and brush the entire surface and sprinkle it with sugar.
Cooking.
Cook the Gubana in a preheated oven at 170°C for 60 minutes more or less,
then leave to cool on a cake rack.
Serve Gubana squirted with some shot glass of Grappa.
