Neapolitan Easter Bread
Instructions
In a large bowl, put the flour, the dry active yeast, the sugar, plenty of pepper and the lard. While in a jug, put the water and dissolve the salt in it. Now pour the water into the bowl and blend all the ingredients; once the ingredients are well blended, continue to knead on a worktop sprinkled with flour.
After kneading on the worktop for at least 10 minutes, you should have a smooth and soft dough, as you can see. Now take a pretty large bowl, grease with lard, put in the dough, cover with cling film and let it rise at about 85F (30C) for at least 2 hours, 2 hours and a half until doubled in size.
And here is the dough after rising. Now sprinkle the worktop with flour and roll it out into a large rectangle, 16 inches wide by 28 inches long, with a thickness of about 1/10 inch (3 mm).
And here is our pastry rectangle. Cut a strip from the short side and keep aside for the final decoration... now sprinkle all the ingredients on it, the salami and the provolone cheese have been diced, so begin with the mixed grated cheeses... leave some space around the edge so that the roll can be sealed. Try to spread them evenly over the pastry... and lastly the bacon. Here we are. Now begin to roll it up.
When the roll is ready, seal the two ends by pressing with your fingers... Place the sealed part on the bottom. At this point take a 9-inch ring mould, which has been greased with lard. Take the roll... and put it in the ring mould. Of course the two ends will overlap a bit, in this way. Now, let it rise once more at 85F (30C) for an hour.
When the casatiello rises to the rim, you can lay the eggs on top at an even distance, pressing them lightly. The eggs have been washed under cold water, and dried well. At this point, stop them with the remaining dough, which has been rolled out and cut into inch-wide strips. As you can see, to stop the eggs you just have to make a cross in this way. Now, you can leave the casatiello as it is, or make it shiny by brushing the surface with a beaten egg, including the strips, then bake at 390F (200C) for about 50 minutes.
50 min. -- 390F (200C)
After taking it out of the oven, let it cool a bit, then slice it, if you want to enjoy the stringy cheese, or leave it for the next day and taste it cold. Happy Easter to everybody, from Sonia and Giallozafferano, see you next video recipe.
