TABELIAAUTHENTIC RECIPE
SbrisolonaSbrisolona Almond Crumble Cake
Mantua's almond and cornmeal cake, named for its crumbliness. Broken by hand rather than cut with a knife, its distinctive crunchy, shattering texture comes from baking an unkneaded, crumbly mixture. A court pastry of the 17th-century Gonzaga family.
AUTHENTICITY SCORE
Authenticity Score
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Ingredients (8 servings)
- Cake flour150 g
- Fine cornmealFine fioretto is ideal. Coarse polenta meal gives excessively coarse grains.150 g
- Almond flour80 g
- Whole almondsCoarsely chop into uneven 4–6 mm pieces. Skinned or unskinned are both suitable.150 g
- Granulated sugar150 g
- Cold unsalted butterCut into 1 cm cubes and refrigerate until just before use.130 g
- Egg yolks2 pieces
- Grated lemon peelUse a Japanese-grown, unwaxed lemon. Grate only the colored zest, avoiding white pith.1 fruit
- Vanilla extract3 ml
- Salt2 g
- Powdered sugar (for finishing)15 g
Method
Prepare ingredients and tin
- 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- 2 Cut 130 g butter into 1 cm cubes and return to the refrigerator.
- 3 Coarsely chop 150 g almonds on a board into 4–6 mm pieces.
- 4 Lightly butter a 26–28 cm round tin.
Ready when
Continue when preparation is complete.
Caution
Keep the butter chilled until just before use.
Make the crumbly mixture
- 1 Grate only the colored lemon zest.
- 2 Mix flour, cornmeal, almond flour, sugar, grated zest and salt in a bowl.
- 3 Add cold butter and rub quickly with fingertips to a loose sandy texture.
- 4 Add 2 yolks and 3 ml vanilla and mix into damp, coarse crumbs.
- 5 Mix in the chopped almonds lightly.
Ready when
Continue when the mixture is uniformly damp and coarsely crumbly.
Caution
Never knead into a mass; kneading destroys the crumbling texture.
Fill the tin
- 1 Put all the crumbly mixture in the tin.
- 2 Level gently by hand without compacting it.
Ready when
Continue when evenly spread across the tin.
Caution
Do not press down. An uneven surface with gaps is correct.
Bake the sbrisolona
- 1 Bake at 180°C for 40–45 minutes.
- 2 Cool completely in the tin.
Ready when
It is baked when golden to light brown on top and slightly darker at the edges.
Caution
Underbaking makes it crumble excessively. Bake thoroughly.
Break and serve
- 1 Remove from the tin.
- 2 Break by hand or by tapping with a spoon handle, without a knife.
- 3 Dust with 15 g icing sugar.
About this dish
Sbrisolona is a signature sweet of Mantua in Lombardy. It appears in documents as a 17th-century Gonzaga court pastry, originally a refined sweet for aristocratic tables.
Its name derives from a word meaning something crumbly. Rather than cut with a knife, it is broken by hand or with a spoon handle: a typically Mantuan scene of family and guests gathered around the same cake.
Today it is loved after autumn and winter meals or with Vin Santo and sparkling wine. Even after passing from court to home, breaking it to share has preserved its memory.
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