Spongadì is a rustic ring-shaped cake, typically found in the Tremosine sul Garda area and traditionally prepared during the Easter period. Some of the bakeries in the villages along the Brescia shore of Lake Garda cook this delicacy all year round.
This tasty dessert goes well with the delicious jams produced in the farms around Tremosine sul Garda. A slice of spongadì together with the excellent honey of the Alto Garda Bresciano Park is also a great idea for breakfast or a snack.
The consistency of spongadì is more similar to shortcrust pastry than to a classic soft breakfast cake - in fact, one of its characteristics is that it’s made with compact but crumbly pastry.
Spongadì should be cooked in the traditional oven, and it can have two different shapes - ring-shaped, like a snail, or an S shape.
Traditionally, in Tremosine sul Garda spongadì was prepared in a special pan that was then placed on the embers and left to cook slowly.
To make the perfect spongadì you need flour, milk, sugar, eggs, butter, cream of tartar or yeast, and granulated sugar to decorate it - after obtaining a soft and compact dough, sprinkle its surface with sugar and then bake it at 180° for about 30 minutes.
If you like citrusy flavors you can mix lemon rind in the dough - naturally, make sure you pick lemons grown on the Brescia shore of the lake!
Now all you need to do is enjoy it! For breakfast, we suggest you to have it with a glass of fresh milk from the Tremosine sul Garda plateau, or a traditional cappuccino.
A curious fact about spongadì? This dessert was traditionally prepared for Easter, in the shape of a dove. An egg used to be placed near the tail: for this reason, the dessert took the name of ‘colomba con l’ȍf en del cül ‘ (dove with an egg up its bum).
Two beans were also on the eyes to make it look even more like a dove.
