Zelten

Zelten is a typical Christmas cake of Trentino Alto Adige. The first recipe of Zelten dates back to 1700, and its names comes from the German selten that means rarely; in fact, this dessert was and is still prepared once year, exclusively for Christmas.

Servings: 10

Preparation Time: 3 hours

Difficulty: High

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 oz butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 17 1/2 oz soft dried fig
• 2 1/2 oz raisins (Malaga)
• 1 1/2 oz raisins (sultan)
• 1 1/2 oz pine nuts
• 1 1/2 oz peeled almonds
• 1 1/2 oz walnuts
• 1 1/2 oz hazelnuts
• 1 glass rum

Preparation:

Let’s start from dried fruits: cut the dried figs into strips, the Malaga raisins in half and chop up the nuts. Put the chopped fruit in a bowl and add raisin, pine nuts, hazelnuts and the rum; leave to rest for about an hour. Beat the egg yolks with half the sugar until light and fluffy, add melted butter and pour this mixture into the bowl with dried fruits. Stir in warm water or milk, flour and baking powder. Whip the egg whites with the order half of sugar and stir to the dough. Grease and flour a rectangular pan and pour the mixture in it. Decorate with almonds, candied fruits, pine nuts, walnuts and hazelnuts, brush the surface of Zelten with egg yolk and bake at 320 F for 90 minutes.