Italian Halloween recipe for "bread of the dead" - video recipes at home

Italian matron baked picturesque traditional sweets like "bread of the dead" or "bones of the dead," a cemetery symbols - their own, by the way, you can buy almost everywhere in the local bars, - and the youth line up for carnival costumes to root here American holiday Halloween. Although, I think the Italian holiday traditions where noteworthy brighter and sweeter (literally!) Overseas. In addition, many local customs can be seen and the echoes of similar ... Slavic rites. Whatever it was, to judge you!

I'm not going to bore you with boring excursion into the history of both the November Italian holidays, just mention that the day November 2 for the remembrance of the dead was chosen not by chance: the pagans honored their ancestors just at the end of October - beginning of November, and the Bible tells us about a global flood that occurred around the same period. In the era of the first Christians, the Catholic Church, with varying success fought the pagan beliefs: in 835 Pope Gregory II even moved the feast of "All Saints" from 13 May to 1 November, to give a new, "right", the Catholic interpretation of the primitive rites of the Gentiles. A bit later, in 998 Abate Clooney was added to the Christian calendar celebration commemoration of the dead on November 2. In memory of the victims of their relatives living relatives ryadilas in costumes of saints, angels and devils, and fires burned.

and pagan deities, and the "right" God gave the Italians a modern celebration of the dead as a reminder of their own power. Rare case when paganism and Catholicism so agree with each other, is not it? And if it is true that today, in the Apennines nation remembers its dead prayer, then it is also true that there are still alive and some ancient rituals.

In my native Lombardy (Milan) in the night of 1 to 2 November in the kitchen decided to put the vessel with water to the departed could drink. A similar custom exists and Friuli: here leave a lighted candle, a bucket of water and bread. Sardinia and completely cover the table and open all the cupboards with provisions. In Trentino for the deceased also left a lit light and Serving tables, only a precaution for hours ringing the bell to gather near the church of the souls of all the dead, who, according to popular belief prevalent here, spying on the window in the living.

In Liguria on the eve of the day of the dead children go from house to house and collect the "good of the dead" - chestnuts, dried dates and sweets and then prayed at night, listen to the horror stories that tell their grandparents. In the Veneto to defeat sadness and melancholy, lovers give each other bags of beans from raznovetnymi cookie called "dead bones". Like their neighbors to the north, the people of Umbria, at the center of Italy, seize the sweet bitterness of the loss of loved ones, replacing the typical local treats affection deceased relatives. In Cremona decided to get up early in the morning and immediately fill the bed so that the dear dead could rest on them, and then go home to collect bread and flour to bake all the same "dead bone". In the capital, Rome and completely relies sharing a meal with the dead, had a dinner at his grave and keep him company. In Sicily in the day of the dead receives gifts ... children: while the kids are sleeping, parents hoard sugar dolls of chocolate and chestnuts, and begins in the morning, "treasure hunt"!

All these sweets are prepared on the Italian November holidays on purpose. Here I believe that on the night of 1 November 2, souls of the dead returned to earth from the world. And culinary background of the Dead Day due to the fact that the living want to appease their own dead, favorably positioned them to him the next year and to please them than something sweet and tasty, just to energize them after a hard way from the world.

The Italians were not Italians, if not approached with humor and to the preparation of gastronomic gifts for the dead. Here, for example, in Sicily, with a sense of humor all right: the local housewives are preparing for the holiday, "breast of the Blessed Virgin", typical sweets of round shape with the scent of jasmine ... The neighbors of the southern Calabria regale "fingers Apostle" of almond paste filled with cedar jam.

And if you believe in legends and want to treat the home than something such as the time on the occasion of Halloween, why do not you try to bake ... "pan de muerto", pan dei morti.

RECIPE "Bread of the Dead"

It is necessary: ​​

250 g of dry biscuits "Savoyardy"

150 g flour

150 g of sugar

150 g raisins

80 g of peeled almonds

20 g dark cocoa powder

2 protein

White wine

1/2 sachet of yeast

1/2 h. L. cinnamon powder

HOW TO PREPARE:

1. Turn cookie into a powder.

2 In the same bowl, add the flour, pre-soaked in water, raisins, finely ground almonds, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon and yeast. 3 Thoroughly mix all the ingredients and then the resulting mass lay on the table, add protein and knead the dough for about ten minutes, gradually adding white wine to obtain the desired uniform consistency.

4. mold out of the resulting dough balls sized tangerine, and then give them a slightly flattened and elongated shape (thickness of the test - about 1 cm).

5. Pour onto a form lined with parchment paper and bake in an oven preheated to 180 ° C for 15-20 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Bon Appetit! Buon appetito!