Mafalda Siciliana · Pane Siciliano con Sesamo
Sicily · bread · serves 8 · 240 min total · medium
Named (so the story goes) after Princess Mafalda of Savoy, the loaf's looping shape was a tribute from a Palermo baker in the 1900s. The semola gives the crumb its golden colour; the sesame coat — giuggiulena, from the Arabic — is Sicily's most distinctive bread signature.
Ingredients
- 500 g semola rimacinata
- 320 ml warm water
- 10 g fresh yeast
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 10 g fine sea salt
- 1 tsp malt or honey
- 50 g white sesame seeds (giuggiulena)
- 2 tbsp water for brushing
Method
- Dissolve yeast and malt in the water. Combine with semola, oil and salt. Knead 10 minutes to a deep yellow, elastic dough.
- First rise 90 minutes until doubled.
- Roll the dough into a long rope (about 60 cm). Then fold it into the classic serpentine: a zigzag with a final loop laid across the top — the 'crown of Mafalda'.
- Brush the surface generously with water and roll in sesame seeds until completely coated.
- Place on a tray; final proof 45 minutes.
- Heat oven to 220°C (430°F).
- Bake 30–35 minutes until the loaf is golden and the sesame is toasted. Cool on a rack.
- Eat fresh — split and stuff with mortadella, panelle, or just olive oil and ricotta.