An amazing new twist on the cinnamon roll…or really the start of the cinnamon roll with a lot more flavor!

Italian Pastry Twist

Translation:

“…get a pound of currants that have been brought to a boil in wine, a pound of dates cooked in that wine and cut up small, and a pound of seeded muscatel raisins that have been brought to a boil in wine; combine all those ingredients and mix them with the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Spread the mixture out over the sheet of dough along with a few little gobs of butter. Beginning at the long edge of dough, roll it up like a wafer cornet, being careful not to break the dough. A twist like that needs only three rolls so it can cook well; it should not be too tight. Grease its surface with melted butter that is not too hot. Begin at one end to roll it up, not to tightly so it become like a snail shell or a bae. Have tourte pan on hand lined with a rather thick sheet of the same dough greased with melted butter and gently put the twist on it without pushing it down. Bake it in an oven or braise it with a moderate heat, not forgetting to grease it occasionally with melted butter. When it is almost done, sprinkle sugar and rosewater over it.

Serve it hot. The tourte pan in which the twists are baked has to be ample and with low sides.”

(Scappi, pp. 488-489)

Dough:

Make a dough of two pounds of fine flour with six fresh egg yolks, two ounces of rose water, an ounce of leaven moistened with warm water, four ounces of fresh butter or rendered fat that does not smell bad, and enough salt. That dough should be kneaded well for half an hour. Make a thin sheet of it, greasing it with either melted butter that is not too hot or with rendered fat. With the pastry wheel cut the edges one after the other, which are always quite a bit thicker than the rest. Sprinkle the dough with four ounces of sugar and an ounce of cinnamon.

(Scappi, pp. 488-489)

Dough Ingredients:

7 cups pastry flour

1 stick of butter

6 egg yolks

1 oz. of sour dough yeast (use sourdough starter or 2 package of regular yeast if sourdough is unavailable)

Melted butter to brush over pastry and pastry sheet

1 tsp salt

4 Tbsp. rose water

Dough Dusting:

4 Tbsp. of sugar

2 Tbsp. cinnamon

Filling:

3 C currants

3 C chopped dates

3 C raisons

1 bottle good wine

1 tsp each of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg

1 tsp rosewater

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 stick of butter, sliced thinly as needed for dotting

Optional:

2 sticks of butter (instead of 1)

1/3 C. rose water

Redaction:

Start with making the dough. Even though the rose water sounds excessive it isn’t. If anything I’d add another Tbs. and another stick of butter.

I put the flour into the bowl first, with a bit of salt, and then add the butter mixing by hand. Once the butter was mostly incorporated, I slowly added the egg yolks, rose water and yeast. I had to add about a cup of water to help bring everything together.

When Scappi says moisten the yeast, I believe this is where he means add the yeast to a cup of water as this was the only way the dough was going to form. This forms the dough from rough to smooth elastic that is just amazing to work with.   Here the finished dough is shown.  As smooth as a baby’s bottom.

Note on Butter and Rose Water:

            After making this recipe a multiple times, I added more rose water as I was unable to actually smell or taste with just 1 tsp as per Scappi.  1/3 C sounds like a lot and it is; however for this recipe I think a little excess is called for.  The taste and smell is just divine!

            As for the extra butter, this made the dough an even greater joy to work with.  The taste was out of this world.  If you want to make two versions, the original and then with the added butter and rose water, you won’t be disappointed!

            After the dough was finished, I let it sit while I chopped the dates, and measured out the currants and raisins. Next the spices were measured out and a good red wine found.

A quick note on Corinthian raisins: He called for currents and Corinthian raisins. It is possible that the Corinthian raisins called for were currents however, my believe this is a mistranslation. If Scappi had wanted currants, currants and dates, he would have said Double the amount of currants to the amount of dates used. Hence the use of raisins instead of double the amount of currants.

            I used a nice Italian red. 

            I went with a good red as cooking will leach a bit of flavor out. This red was amazing.  Make sure you use one you’re willing to drink and serve to friends.  It really makes a difference!  Once plump, roughly 30 minutes, pour the fruit into a sieve and let the excess wine drain out. When the fruit mixture is cool enough to handle we get the dough ready for stuffing.

Note: Scappi’s recipe could read to incorporate the spices with the fruit in the wine mixture, or wait till the re-hydrated fruit is finished cooking then mix once you are ready to spread over the dough. My first try at this recipe, I added the spices to the fruit and wine.

I thought about doubling the above recipe to start. That is unnecessary. This recipe will take care of filling all the dough you need.

Roll the other half out and cut into a circle that fits into a pie pan, brush with melted butter the bottom of the pan before putting on the bottom layer of dough. Then brush the dough in the pan with butter. Do not skip the bottom dough layer! This keeps the twist from burning on the bottom.

Roll out the first half of the dough into a thin sheet, trimming the edges to form a nice rectangle. Then lay the mixture on top of the dough leaving ½ inch at the edges. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mixture. Dot with butter.

Starting from the long edge, roll three times.

Then coil the pastry.

Place on top of the 2nd sheet of dough that is at the bottom of round metal pie tin.  Brush with melted butter.

Heat the oven to 350 until done, roughly 30 minutes. When it comes out of the oven dust with sugar and rose water.