Cartellate, a typical Christmas Apulian sweet (recipe by Maria Pia Miglionico)

Posted on Dec 12 2014 by Redazione

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The apulian Cartellate are a typical Christmas dessert. Its origins can be traced back to several sources. The word “cartellata” probably derives from the process of “incartellare” (vulgar synonym for wrapping). The food blogger Maria Pia Miglionico would like to share her recipe with us. Enjoy!

Ingredients

250 grams of durum wheat
250 grams of all purpose flour
150 grams of white wine
80 grams of sugar
50 grams of olive oil
Vincotto or honey or powdered sugar

By mixing two flours (semolina flour and 00) you will get a dough that will make cartellate not overly brittle and therefore will not break when you will put your vincotto.
Heat white wine. Dissolve the sugar in the wine. Sift the flour and drill a hole in the center, pour the oil and slowly pour the hot wine and begin to knead. Knead the dough until it is smooth. Remove one side and put the other in a bowl, covering it to keep it from drying out. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet and with the aid of a notched wheel cut the dough and form strips about 3 cm wide and 35-40 cm long. The length is variable depending on the size of cartellate. Pinch the dough every 3 cm. Roll the strips up on themselves to form cartellate. Fry them immediately, so they will not dry.
Fry the cartellate (preferably olive oil). Drain on paper towels.
Put to heat the cooked wine in a saucepan, if your vincotto was too thick dilute it with some water and rehearse cartellate in vincotto, two at a time not more. Remove them immediately with a skimmer. You can use icing sugar instead of vincotto or even honey.
You can keep cartellate for several days, you can store them in containers with lids and consume them during the holidays.