Torcolo of San Costanzo

The cake in honour of St. Costanzo

The Torcolo of San Costanzo is a cake created in honor of St. Costanzo, one of the three patron Saints (the other two are St Lorenzo and St Ercolano) celebrated on the 29th of January. It has been conceived as a “poor cake”, with simple and easy to find ingredients; the basic dough was made like the one for bread.

On the origins of its ring shaped form there are several different versions:
a) Its hole represents the beheaded fate of the Saint;
b) The ring shape represents the necklace of the Saint, rich in precious stones (and from this the use of candied cedar peel) that fell the moment of the beheading;
c) It si also said that the hole was made for it to be easily transported with stick in fairs and markets.

Recipe
(Accademia Italiana della Cucina of Perugia)

Persons: 6

Ingredients:
600 gr flour, 330 gr water, 170 gr sugar, 170 gr candied cedar, 85 gr olive oil, 85 gr di burro, 170 gr raisin, 170 gr pine nuts, 1 egg, 25 gr brewer yeast, anise seeds where liked.

Preparation:
In a bowl make a well in the centre of the flour, crumble the yeast and mix all with warm water; knead the dough (should turn out as the bread dough) for some minutes; place the bowl in a warm place protected against air draft. When the dough has doubled its volume, put it on the pastry board, flat it lightly with the hands and mix with the dough the candied cedar cut into little cubes, the raisin, the pine nuts, the oil, the butter, the sugar and two spoonful of anise seeds. Knead the dough for about ten minutes, roll it and place the ring in a buttered cake pan. Place the cake pan as before a warm place protected against air draft; add a pot with boiling hot water. After three hours the dough will be perfectly raised. Ice the surface with egg yolk and cut lightly the surface of the cake with a knife. Oven at 180° C for three quarters of an hour.

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