Hello everyone! It’s been a journey to make an authentic Ciambella. After scouring the internet and watching countless Italian recipe Youtubers, I finally got the right recipe to share with you all.
Ciambella is the perfect coffee or snack cake, it’s not overly sweet or too soft where you would need a plate and fork to enjoy it. You can just pick up a piece eat it with your hands if you wanted to but it’s not dry or “bready” where you’d need a glass of milk or coffee to wash it down. It’s just right. In many of the videos I see online, Italians often say that this cake is the quintessential portable snack. Mind you, I noticed that they often mention when foods are portable, especially when they are suited for the beach. lol It must be in my DNA because whenever I’m planning a road trip or a day trip, I always think of what I can bring from home that would make a delicious, hassle-free snack. My husband, who is not Italian, always feigns exasperation at my snack planning but I know he’s happy when on a long drive, I whip out a homemade cookie or like on our last trip, a slice of pasta pie! lol (Recipe to come) Also, you can’t forget the fruit! Fruit is an essential part of any Italian’s snack kit. I even bought a refrigerated cooler for our car. It plugs into the lighter plug and it’s awesome! Every hour I was like, “Want a banana?”, “Want a cookie?” etc… Best. trip. ever!
Anyway, moving on to the recipe… I added 2 teaspoons of lemon extract. Although it seems that traditionally, a ciambella has a way more subtle lemon flavour derived from the zest of 1 lemon only. If you like a more subtle flavour, simply omit or reduce the amount of lemon extract.
Make sure to follow me on Instagram @vanilla_bean_montreal for recipe try-outs, how-to’s and just general food-related talk! Check out my highlights to see how I made this Ciambella!
Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from my new favourite Youtube channel, Ricette delle Nonne 🙂
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 40 minutes |
| Servings |
bundt/ciambella
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- 3 Large eggs at room temperature egg whites and yolks separated in separate bowls
- 3/4 Cup Yogurt (regular, not Greek) any flavour you like or plain. 5% sour cream also works.
- 150 g Corn or sunflower oil (about 3/4 cup)
- 300 g all purpose flour (just shy of 3 cups)
- 265 g white sugar (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp Lemon extract
- 16 g baking powder or 1 envelope of Italian baking lievito
- zest of 1 lemon
- Icing sugar for dusting
Ingredients
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- Note that the original recipe did not contain weights or measurements for ingredients. They used one glass to measure everything. So to give you an idea, they used a slightly narrow, short glass and measured as follows: 1 glass yogurt, 3 glasses of flour, 2 glasses of sugar and 1 glass of oil. I tried to use a similar sized glass and measured/weighed them to come up with my quantities. Butter and flour a bunt pan or ciambella pan. Mine is 26cm in diameter. Baking times may vary depending on the depth and size of your pan.
- Beat egg whites in a medium bowl until white and loosely foamy (not like meringue has to be airy but still bubbly). Set aside.
- In another bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar, then add yogurt, then oil, then zest and both extracts.
- Beat in the lievito/baking powder.
- Gently incorporate half the flour.
- Add egg whites and incorporate gently but fully.
- Add the rest of the flour and beat on low. When it’s mostly incorporated, switch to a rubber spatula and continue to stir by hand, in an up and over motion, until smooth.
- Preheat oven to 350F, convection if you have that setting. Otherwise, standard is fine. Check for doneness at 30-35 minutes. Mine was perfect at 40 minutes but ovens vary somewhat. Top should be deeply golden.
- Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan. Allow to cool completely, about 1 hour and then dust with icing sugar or make a lemony sugar glaze (icing sugar, juice of half a lemon + zest (to taste) and drizzle overtop.
