We are in Tuscany, precisely in Lucca where you can eat one of the traditional dishes: the cake with beaks, which are nothing more than folds of shortcrust pastry. There are many versions of it and it is called differently in different provinces. For example, in some towns around Pisa it is called the bischeri cake, but that is another story and we can discuss the different variations for hours.
There are 3 versions of this typical Lucca dessert (at least the ones I know of): the one with amaretti, the one with chocolate and the one we will prepare today with chard. Even if there are vegetables, it is still a dessert.
The cake with beaks does not have a precise history, it is more of a family dessert with recipes that are handed down from grandmother to daughter and therefore we will have many similar but never the same recipes, the one I will propose to you was given to me by an innkeeper. For the shortcrust pastry, everyone does their own.
Cake with beaks recipe
Let's start by preparing the pastry: mine is made from 150g of sugar, 150g of butter, 2 egg yolks and a whole egg and 300g of flour. Once the pastry has been prepared, we put it in the fridge and let it rest.
We clean and boil the chard while we soak 100 g of stale bread in milk, and we put 50 g of sultanas to revive in water. Once the chard is cooked, we chop it and sauté it in a pan with butter, salt and pepper.
We squeeze the bread and raisins and prepare the filling for the cake. We add the chard, the bread, the raisins, the candied citron, an egg and an egg yolk, the cinnamon, a little nutmeg, the last of half a grated lemon and a drop of liqueur.
Mix everything together until you create a homogeneous mixture which we will place in the cake tin where we have already placed the pastry, making sure to leave enough dough to be able to fold it over the edge and create the "beaks". According to some, the beaks should represent the battlements of the towers of Lucca.
To make the beaks, make alternating cuts in the pastry with the tip of the scissors and pinch the dough. Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 45 minutes. It can be served cold or warm.
In the glass, tradition uses a sweet passito wine or vin santo, a Tuscan delight.
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