To make up for the Englishness of my last
bakes I go back to Northern Italy with this one and it might be an Italian
common feature but I’m also going back to hilarious names, seePanpapato.
Sbrisolona is dialect for ‘big crumbly thing’ and this thing is in fact quite
big and very crumbly. It is also very delicious and it’s not the kind of tart
that you slice and eat in a civilised way so unless you’re one of those people
that eat an almond with a knife and fork you can break it into pieces as big as
you like (or just jump to the next level and don’t even break it into pieces
and eat the whole thing like an enormous biscuit. Don’t tell anyone I said
that).
It’s also perfect for nice weather. As in, if you eat three quarters of it over the sink you can go for a walk (crawl?) to Stoke Newington and you may even get tanned (if you’re not me).
See? Happy days all around.
100g (heaped ¾ cup) pastry flour
100g (heaped ¾ cup) maize flour
100g (1/3 cup) unrefined golden caster sugar
80g (1 cup) ground almonds
¼ teaspoon salt
110g (1/2 cup) margarine
zest of ½ lemon
20g (1/2 cup) flaked and/or whole almonds
Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F) and
lightly grease or line with baking paper a 22cm/9” cake tin. In a bowl sift
together pastry flour and maize flour, then add sugar, ground almonds and salt
and mix until combined. Cut the margarine into small chunks then add to the
mixture together with the lemon zest. Rub the margarine and flour together
using your fingertips until the mixture is well combined but very crumbly – the
texture of wet sand. Next transfer into the tin, crumbling the dough some more
if necessary, and pressing it down very gently into an even layer. Top with the
flaked/whole almonds and press them down gently. Bake for 40 minutes or until
golden brown. Let cool on a rack then break into pieces and enjoy the
crumbliness of this crumbly crumbly thing.
