ZZAFF!: Veneziane

For this month’s ZZAFF! episode I opted for a classic of our childhood’s mid-day snacks. What’s your memory of veneziane? To me it was a specialty that was given as a snack only on special occasions! Elegant, decorated with sugar grains and coated with a crisp and sticky hazelnut glaze, the veneziana is a refined leavened dough bread usually flavoured with vanilla and citrus. And it is extremely soft! History also testifies its consumption on special occasions such as weddings and Christmas and Easter Holidays. After all, the dough is very similar to that of colomba and panettone. I also found a dialectal expression: “Bell ti che ta gh’et ammò la veneziana con sü ul zücher!” that means: “Lucky you, you still have your veneziana with its sugar on!”. It is an expression that alludes to the consumption of veneziane on the occasion of wedding celebrations. The image of fresh veneziane which still have their grains of sugar on them is a metaphor for a newly feted wedding. My version although simplified is a bit complicated to make, but it gives a lot of satisfaction!