Gubana · Gubana delle Valli del Natisone
Friuli-Venezia Giulia · dolce · serves 12 · 360 min total · hard
The dolce of the Natisone valleys, that Slavic-speaking strip of Friuli pinned against the Slovenian border. Eaten at Christmas, Easter and weddings since at least the 15th century. The spiral is the soul of it — Friulani say the gubana "folds in upon itself like a sleeping cat." Local custom: slice it warm, douse the slice in a teaspoon of grappa, eat it standing in the kitchen.
Ingredients
- 500 g strong 00 flour
- 15 g fresh yeast
- 180 ml warm milk
- 100 g sugar
- 3 eggs eggs
- 120 g soft butter
- 1 pinch pinch of salt
- 1 lemon lemon zest
- 250 g walnuts, chopped
- 50 g pine nuts
- 80 g almonds, chopped
- 120 g sultanas, soaked in grappa
- 80 g candied orange and citron
- 50 g dark chocolate, chopped
- 120 g sugar for filling
- 60 g melted butter for filling
- 50 ml grappa
- 50 g toasted breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 yolk egg yolk for brushing
Method
- Dough: dissolve yeast in warm milk with a spoon of sugar. Stand 10 minutes until foamy. Mix flour with sugar, salt, lemon zest. Add eggs, the milk-yeast. Knead 10 minutes; work in soft butter piece by piece until silky and elastic. First rise: 2 hours, doubled.
- Filling: combine walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, drained sultanas, candied fruit, chocolate, sugar, melted butter, toasted breadcrumbs, cinnamon and 2 tbsp of the grappa from the raisin soak. The mix should be heavy and just-spreadable.
- Knock the dough back. Roll out on a floured cloth to a large rectangle about 60 × 40 cm, no more than 4 mm thick.
- Spread the nut filling evenly across the dough, leaving a 3 cm margin on the long sides.
- Using the cloth, lift one long side and roll the dough away from you into a tight log. Tuck the ends in.
- Curl the log into a flat spiral on a lined baking tray — the snail-shell shape that gives the gubana its name (Slovenian guba — fold).
- Second rise: 1 hour, until visibly relaxed.
- Brush all over with egg yolk thinned with milk. Bake at 175°C (350°F) for 45–50 minutes — deep burnished gold.
- While warm, brush with the remaining grappa so it soaks into the crust.
- Cool completely. Slice across the spiral; each portion shows the rings of nuts and dark chocolate.