Canadians love donuts, Italians love… ciambella

Guys… I made it! Woo hoo! Five days with no sweets!! Double woo hooo! I beat my sugar addiction and I cleaned my body from all the chocolate I had been eaten every single day for more than one week. So my “treat” will be… ciambella!!

Ciambella is a ring shaped cake… Let’s say it for Americans and Canadians who follow my blog: ciambella is a huuuge doughnut 😉

It’s one of the traditional cakes in Italy. Each region has a traditional recipe for it. For example, in Calabria (Southern region) they have the cuddrurieddru, a sweet fried donut made with flour and boiled potatoes, typically made during Christmas holidays. In my region, Emilia Romagna we have ciambella ferrarese (from the city of Ferrara), a baked donut made with flour, sugar, eggs and butter. It’s the one I always make. Even if it says “butter” don’t jump to hasty conclusions because I put just 100 gr of butter. It’s not a big deal if you think of all junk food consumed here in North America! In Marche, they have ciambella frastagliata, jagged donut, made with mistrà (aniseed-flavour liquor) and a high proportion of egg, which is boiled, dried with a cloth, cut in half and baked until crispy.

For my Italian friends: Canadians are nuts about donuts!!! In many cities, the shops or cafeteria where you can buy doughnuts are even more gathering places. Tim Hortons, that is the largest Canadian coffee shop that sells donuts, coffee, sandwiches and so on is like an institution. I love its honey dip Timbits. Timbits is the brand name of bite-sized doughnut balls. They are like Italian frittelle (in the picture) that are served during Carnival, in February.

For many Canadians, it has become a ritual to enjoy coffee and donuts at a donut shop while reading the newspaper or even while doing their work. I usually prefer to read a good book or work at my computer at Starbucks where I usually take my tall no fat tazo chai but with no sweets aside because to tell you the truth I don’t like sweets from Starbucks very much. Don’t tell anyone but sometimes, especially on Saturday afternoon, it happens that I buy Timbits at Tim Hortons. I put the box in my bag and then I go to the Starbucks near my place and have a chai tea latte. I obviously feel ashamed and I would never consume my Timbits there so I go home and have my Tazo Chai and Timbits together. Very smart! …

In the next post you can find a very light and simple recipe for Italian ciambella! Stay tuned.

Enjoy!