Montecadas

Also called acciuleddi in the northeastern part of Sardinia, montedecas are small fried dough braids, typical of the town of Logudoro, traditionally cooked during the Carnival season even though it seems as though it could be a wedding or baptism cake. The recipe is very simple, consisting only of flour, sugar, lard and eggs. In the past lard was used for frying. If you prefer, you can easily replace it with olive or seed oil.

Ingredients

1kg of flour

300 g of lard

2 eggs

150 g of granulated sugar

Lemon zest

A pinch of salt

Frying oil

Powdered sugar (to be drizzled on top)

Preparation

Mix the flour with the eggs, lard, sugar and the other ingredients except the powdered sugar. Work the mixture until soft and homogenous. Alternatively, you can knead it manually. Let the mixture sit covered with a cloth, for almost half an hour. Take one small piece of dough at time, forming long and thin sticks about 50-60cm long. Then take them one by one and join both of its ends together; twist it as much as you can. Then bend it again on itself. Fry in abundant amount (submerged) of oil until crunchy, and remove from the oil and place on absorbent paper (to get rid of excess oil). Finally, sprinkle them with powdered sugar. You can also try them dipped in flavored honey with orange rinds or soft caramel.

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