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Christmas bowl


Christmas bowl

Candied fruit, raisins and nuts are the main ingredients, together with spices, of the bolo de Natal, a typical Brazilian Christmas dessert.

If you also love experimenting with new recipes even during the holidays, then you should try your hand at the most typical Brazilian recipe , the bolo de Natal. In reality the term bolo generically indicates a cake but during the holidays it is used to identify a dessert, usually donut-shaped and glazed, inside which there are nuts, raisins and candied fruit .

Every family loves to add their personal touch to this cake therefore, just as happens with our traditional recipes, it is difficult to identify a unique one. In addition to the ingredients we mentioned before, some use orange juice and some use milk; some add sherry and some port. Even the spices are to the taste of the diners.

We will try to give you the most traditional recipe possible but keep in mind that you can adjust it to suit your tastes.

Christmas bowl
Christmas bowl

Ingredients

For the cake

  • Flour 00 – 330 g
  • Eggs – 4
  • Sugar – 190 g
  • Butter – 200 g
  • Walnuts – 100 g
  • Raisins – 50 g
  • Candied fruit – 50 g
  • Cinnamon (powder) – 1 teaspoon
  • Cloves (powder) – 1/2 tsp
  • Nutmeg (powder) – 1/2 tsp
  • Orange juice – 100 ml
  • Orange peel (untreated) – 1
  • Baking powder – 1 sachet

For the icing

  • Powdered sugar – 250 g
  • Orange juice – 30 ml
  • Water – 30 ml

To complete

  • Currants – to taste
  • Rosemary needles – to taste

Preparation

How to prepare the Christmas bolo recipe

1

To prepare the Brazilian Christmas cake, start by creaming the butter with the sugar using an electric whisk. Then add the eggs , one at a time and always with the whisk in action.

2

Add half the orange juice and the zest then sift the flour with the yeast and spices and add half. Continue to work with the whisk until you obtain a homogeneous mixture. Then add the remaining orange juice and flour.

3

Now all you have to do is add the candied fruit (if you have whole pieces, cut them into half a centimeter cubes), the raisins previously rehydrated in water and the coarsely chopped walnuts with a knife.

4

Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured 24cm diameter donut mold and cook at 180°C for 40 minutes . Before taking it out of the oven, proceed with the toothpick test .

5

Once the cake has completely cooled, prepare the icing by mixing the icing sugar with the water and orange juice . Turn the cake upside down onto a serving plate and decorate with the icing and, if desired, with fresh or candied fruit. We used currants and rosemary needles.

As you can see this recipe is really simple to make. Try it as an alternative Christmas dessert and you won't regret it. Or try your hand at the equally deliciousChristmas pudding , similar in some ways to this recipe.

Conservation

The Christmas bolo is kept under a sweet bell for 3-4 days.

Origin and history

The bolo de Natal today is a typical dessert of Brazilian Christmas but its origin is entirely European . The dessert was created between 1869 and 1970 by the French pastry chef Gregoire and arrived in Porto, Portugal, in 1890. Here today it is known by the name of bolo rei , a clear reference to its crown shape.

Legend has it that the Three Wise Men could not agree on who would be the first to deliver his gift to baby Jesus. They then followed a pastry chef's suggestion and hid a dried broad bean in a sweet dough. The one who found it would be the first. Hence the custom of many families to hide a bean inside the dessert as a sign of good luck. Do you notice any similarities with the galette des roi ?

Another curiosity related to the dessert concerns the ingredients. If the shape in fact recalls that of the crown of the Magi, the ingredients recall the gifts : the spices represent incense, the dried fruit and candied fruit myrrh and the granulated sugar (today replaced by icing) the gold.

Traditionally, the Christmas bolo is prepared on Christmas Eve and left on the table all night in honor of the spirits of the deceased who will visit during the night.

Read also
Christmas desserts: 15 recipes that no one can resist!

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