Sinizza
Sinizza is a beautiful Maltese dish: essentially a Swiss roll, filled with a decadent mixture of ricotta, dark chocolate and almonds baked inside a sheet of puff pastry. It's a heavenly mixture of soft sponge and crunchy pastry and makes a great weekend project.
This recipe is taken from Malta by Simon Bajada (Hardie Grant, £26).
Malta’s indulgent take on a Swiss roll has all the bells and whistles. An outer layer of pastry envelops sponge cake with a sweet ricotta filling, which can be flavoured at will. I love to include dark chocolate, and use Prickly pear liqueur (see page 217 of Malta) for sprinkling onto the cake. Other recipes include orange-blossom water, nutmeg or glacé cherries. This is a fun project that yields a rich, memorable dessert reminiscent of cannoli (or ‘kannoli’ in Malta). Just don’t count the calories! The roll is large enough to feed a minor horde of sweet tooths.
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
- 1 sheet of puff pastry, approximately 30 x 35 cm/12 x 13¾ in
- 125ml of berry jam
- 2 tbsp of orange liqueur, or other liqueur such as Prickly pear liqueur (see page 217 of Malta) or sweet vermouth
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 25g of flaked almonds
- icing sugar, for dusting
Sponge Cake
Filling
- 500g of ricotta
- 50g of caster sugar
- 40g of almonds, toasted and chopped
- 40g of dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp of candied peel, diced (optional)
- orange zest, from 1/2 orange
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Equipment
- Swiss roll tin
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F) and line a rectangular Swiss roll (jelly roll) tin (about 25 x 35 cm/10 x 13¾ in) with baking paper
Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl for a few minutes until light and foamy. Rain in the sugar and beat for another 5 minutes – the eggs should become thick, creamy and roughly tripled in volume. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold through gently. Add the butter, water and vanilla and fold gently until well combined
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean and the sponge is golden. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool
Mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl
- 500g of ricotta
- 50g of caster sugar
- 40g of almonds, toasted and chopped
- 40g of dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp of candied peel, diced (optional)
- orange zest, from 1/2 orange
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Trim the sponge down to 20 x 30 cm (8 x 12 in), sharing the trimmings with kids or keeping them for a small trifle
Lay the sheet of pastry on a piece of baking paper. If the dimensions of the pastry are different to 30 x 35 cm (12 x 13¾ in), then roll it out to this size or trim down as needed
- 1 sheet of puff pastry, approximately 30 x 35 cm/12 x 13¾ in
Spread the pastry with half the jam, leaving a 5 cm (2 in) border. Place the sponge cake on top of the jam, centred on the pastry. Sprinkle the sponge with the liqueur and spread with the remaining jam. Cover the sponge with the ricotta filling in an even layer. Roll up lengthways into a log, tucking in the pastry ends as you go
- 125ml of berry jam
- 2 tbsp of orange liqueur, or other liqueur such as Prickly pear liqueur (see page 217 of Malta) or sweet vermouth
Preheat the oven again to 180°C (360°F)
Lift the log onto a baking tray using the baking paper. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle over the flaked almonds. Bake for 20 minutes, until the pastry is golden
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 25g of flaked almonds
Allow the sinizza to cool completely before dusting with icing sugar and slicing
- icing sugar, for dusting
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