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Florentine Schiacciata

17/11/2023

The Florentine Schiacciata is a dessert typical of the Florentine Carnival, known for its softness and orange fragrance. Here is the recipe to prepare this traditional sweet:

Ingredients

  • 300 g of type 00 flour
  • 200 g of sugar
  • 100 g of soft butter
  • 4 eggs
  • Grated zest of one orange
  • Juice of one orange
  • 1 sachet of vanillin
  • 1 sachet of baking powder
  • Powdered sugar to taste for dusting
  • A pinch of salt

Preparation

  1. In a large bowl, work the soft butter with the sugar until you get a frothy and light mixture.
  2. Separate the yolks from the whites. Add the yolks one at a time to the mixture of butter and sugar, continuing to work with an electric mixer or alternatively a manual whisk.
  3. Add the grated zest and juice of the orange to the mixture and stir well.
  4. Sift the flour with the baking powder and vanillin and incorporate them into the mixture of eggs, sugar, and butter, mixing gently to not deflate everything.
  5. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks with a pinch of salt and fold them into the mixture, using a spatula and movements from the bottom up to maintain the airiness.
  6. Pour the batter into a previously buttered and floured or parchment-lined square or rectangular pan.
  7. Bake at 180 °C for about 25-30 minutes. The Schiacciata is ready when it is golden on the surface and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  8. Let the Schiacciata cool and then dust it generously with powdered sugar.

After cooling the Florentine Schiacciata, traditionally it is decorated with powdered sugar highlighting the Florentine lily emblem, the symbol of the city. To do this, you can cut out the shape from cardboard, place it on the cake, and dust with powdered sugar, then gently remove the cardboard to admire the result.

Curiosity

The Schiacciata fiorentina stands out from other schiacciate due to its softness and the characteristic orange flavor. Contrary to what the name might suggest, this is not a flat preparation, but a high and soft sweet, whose “schiacciatura” lies in the manual pressure applied to distribute the batter in the pan.