Sicilian · Dessert
Granita di Mandorla con Brioche col Tuzzu
- Intermediate
- 45 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with toasted, nutty warmth throughout, richness that coats and comforts.
Ingredients
- 250g raw almonds, Avola if you can get them
- 1 litre cold water, for the almond milk
- 160g caster sugar, for the granita
- 1 pinch fine salt
- 500g strong white flour
- 250ml whole milk, warm
- 100g caster sugar, for the brioche
- 12g fresh yeast
- 2 eggs
- 100g soft butter
- 8g fine salt
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp milk, to glaze
Equipment
Sheet pan · Grater / zester
The skills inside
Kneading doughMashing & puréeingProofing: the rise before the ovenThe wobble & the skewer: testing a bake
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · nuts
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Soak the almonds 8 hours, slip off the skins, blitz them with the litre of cold water and press through a cloth until the pulp is dry; never warm it. 480 min
- Stir the sugar and salt into the cold almond milk until dissolved, pour it into a shallow metal tray and freeze.
- Scrape the whole surface with a fork every 30 minutes for about 3 hours, until it is a bank of loose crystals that collapse under a spoon. 30 min
- For the brioche, mix the flour, warm milk, sugar, yeast, eggs, salt and orange zest to a smooth dough, then work in the butter a piece at a time until the dough is glossy and stretches to a windowpane.
- Prove until doubled, divide into 100g balls, pinch a small ball on top of each as the tuzzu, prove again until pillowy and slow to spring back, glaze and bake at 180C (355F) for 15 minutes, until deep amber. 15 min
- Split a warm brioche, load it with granita until it overflows and eat it standing up.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
Proofing: the rise before the oven 78 recipes
- Judged on volume against the container rather than on the clock: visibly grown, and grown by roughly the amount the recipe describes.
- The poke test agrees: a floured fingertip pressed a centimetre in leaves a dent that springs back slowly and only part of the way. Straight back means it is not ready; no spring at all means it has gone.
- The surface is domed, smooth, and slightly sheened: not cratered, wrinkled, or collapsed, and not skinned over and dry from proofing uncovered.
- Handled, it feels alive and airy: light for its size, with bubbles visible under the skin.
- It springs in the oven: the piece lifts in the first minutes and the scores open. A shape that does not move at all was proofed past its point before it went in.
Where it goes wrong It was proofed to the clock in a kitchen colder or warmer than the recipe assumed: overproofed, it collapses as the blade touches it and bakes flat and dense with a sour edge; underproofed, it tears at the side and bakes tight.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauternes
- Also Right
- Demi-sec Champagne
- From the Taps
- Belgian tripel
- Zero-Proof
- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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