The Cuddrua is a “cake” traditionally served at the end of the Easter meal in the Salento, Puglia. We’ve called it a “cake” because it can savoury or sweet, but always decorated with one or more hard-boiled eggs.
If you fancy trying your hand at preparing a Cuddrua here is the recipe in English, translated from an original on nelSalento and adapted.
500 g plain flour (type 00)
200 g granulated sugar
200 ml extra virgin olive oil
20 g of baking powder
20 ml of warmed milk
3 eggs
hard-boiled eggs, coloured sprinkles and chocolate chip or grated chocolate to decorate
Mix the baking powder with the milk, warming it gently to ensure it dissolves. Warm the milk and add it to the baking powder, stirring until the baking powder is dissolved. Put the flour, oil, the three eggs and sugar into a mixing bowl with the warm milk and baking powder mix. Mix everything together well either by hand or by using a food processor until the mixture comes together into a compact ball. Wrap it in clingfilm and leave it to rest in the refrigerator for at least 40 minutes. While the mixture is resting make some cardboard shapes to use to cut the dough into a heart, a rooster, a doll or a bell.
Divide the dough into four equal parts, roll it out to about 0.5 cm thickness. Then cut out your cuddura in the shape of a bell, swallow, doll, heart and so on using the previously prepared shapes. Decorate everything with ribbons of dough leaving a nest in the centre. Add a hard-boiled egg to the centre of each one and secure it in place with strips of the dough. Brush with a little milk and decorate with coloured sprinkles of chocolate. Bake in the oven at 180 C for 30 minutes until they are golden brown. If the dough browns too quickly reduce the temperature of the oven to 160 C.
