Recipe for Sailor's Bread

This recipe comes from the traditional Genoese cuisine, and thanks to past commercial trade with the Ligurians it was probaly copied and then adapted to the Elba taste and style.

Although the dough is dry and unleavened, it contains a lot of dried fruit and sugar so has a high energy content and keeps for a long time. In the past it was given to the sailors or the fishermen who had to go without fresh foods for long periods.

Today it is considered a sweet bread, and is often served as a dessert along with a good Elba Aleatico DOCG wine.

In 2015, both this bread and the "schiaccia briaca" from Rio were chosen as part of the project entitled "Bread, mind and heart: excellent food products of women who started the firm", a way of representing Tuscan women managers in the province of Livorno at the Artususiana Festival.

Ingredients

300g of "00" type flour, 100 g of butter, 120 g of sugar, 2 eggs, small sachet of baking powder, diced orange, pine nuts, honey, lime, sultanas, grated lemon rind, pinch of salt, milk.

Method

Mix flour with baking powder, sugar and salt, and knead, then add the softened butter and beaten eggs. Add the diced orange, pine nuts, lime, the sultanas soaked in water and drained, a little honey and some grated lemon rind.

Depending on how damp or dry the weather is, you may need to add extra flour or extra milk if the dough is sticky or too dry

Divide into small balls and put far apart on a sheet of grease proof paper on a tray.

Bake at 190° for about 20/25 minutes.

Photo by Acquacotta e fantasia