The gubana is a traditional dessert from Friuli for Christmas. It is a soft spiral brioche that encloses a delicious filling made of dried fruits, citrus peels, cinnamon, crumbled cookies, honey, and raisins.
With this recipe, you can prepare two 500g gubanas.
You will also like these Christmas desserts:
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 5 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 8People
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Christmas
GUBANA INGREDIENTS
- 2 1/2 cups Manitoba flour
- 7 oz sugar
- 1 tsp fresh brewer's yeast
- 1 egg yolk
- Half egg
- 5 oz milk
- 3 oz butter (softened)
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1 orange zest
- 4 oz raisins (soaked in water and grappa)
- 1.8 oz sugar
- 0.5 oz pine nuts
- 1.4 oz almonds (toasted)
- 1.4 oz walnuts
- 1.4 walnuts
- 0.9 oz amaretti
- 2 oz dry cookies
- 0.4 oz unsweetened cocoa powder
- 0.7 oz butter
- 1 orange zest
- 0.7 oz candied orange
- Half egg
Tools
- 1 Mixer
GUBANA PREPARATION
Prepare the filling: in the mixer add the strained raisins, sugar, pine nuts, walnuts, amaretti, cookie crumbs, cocoa, candied orange, orange zest, grappa, butter, almonds, and finally the egg. Blend until you get a spreadable cream.
If the mixture is too dry, add a little of the water with grappa where you soaked the raisins.
Prepare the brioche dough: put the flour, crumbled brewer’s yeast, and sugar into a stand mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, slowly pour in the milk and orange zest, mix until you get a soft dough that detaches from the sides of the mixer bowl.
Finally, add the softened butter and salt. Knead again and then put it in an airtight container to rise in the fridge, covered, overnight.
Take the dough out of the fridge and let it rest at room temperature. Divide it into two equal parts of 500g each, to get two gubanas.
Roll each dough piece with the help of a rolling pin until you get a rectangular shape.Spread half of the filling on top (the rest will obviously be used for the other gubana), roll the dough on itself from the longer side, obtaining a sausage shape, which you will roll on itself to form a spiral, and place the gubana in a paper mold, like those for panettone. Do the same with the other gubana.
Once they have risen, brush each gubana with a beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Now bake in a ventilated oven at 340°F for 35 minutes
Adriana’s Advice
Let the gubana sit for a day before enjoying it. You can add, if you prefer, chocolate chips and ground cinnamon to the filling.
