Cheese Easter Pizza

Baking with conventional ovens – and not fan assisted ones – is essential to ensure the proper “growth” when making leavened products, just like the cheese Easter Pizza, also known as crescia, which is a leavened savoury cake of Easter tradition, typical of many areas of central Italy.
This soft leavened cake is used for breakfast on feast days along with cold cuts, cheeses and hard-boiled eggs, it is also ideal for brunch and can be enjoyed on its own.

Let’s see all the steps of the recipe, made with serieS heat:

Easter Pizza from Marche recipe

INGREDIENTS (For 12 crescias 500g)

Biga
300 g flour W 380
132 g water
3 g brewer’s yeast

Pour the flour into a bowl and add the crumbled yeast, then the water.
Knead for a few minutes, just to moisturise the flour, the dough should be coarse. Cover with a perforated film and leave to rest at 18°C for 12/16 hours.

Dough

435 g biga
3000 g flour W 260-280
360 g milk
1500 g eggs
120 g fresh brewer’s yeast
2 g malt powder
45 g salt
45 g pepper
300 g EVO oil
450 g grated Pecorino Romano cheese
450 g Grated Parmesan
100 g semi-seasoned Pecorino cheese cubes

Round, high-sided baking pan Ø 20 cm or ½ kg panettone mould

Heat: serieS Multibake chamber, 3 phases baking programme – baking time 35 minutes

How to make Easter Pizza

METHOD

1. Pour the chopped biga, the flour with the malt, the crumbled brewer’s yeast, the milk and 750 g of eggs into the mixer.
   Knead on first speed for about 10/14 minutes, or until gluten develops.
2. Add the salt and pepper and the last part of the eggs, continuing to knead on first speed.
3. When the dough is compact enough move to the second speed, drizzle the oil, continuing to knead until completely absorbed. Finally, add all the cheeses.
4. Place the dough in a box, close it and leave to rest at 28°C for 90 minutes. In the meantime, butter the moulds or pans to be used for baking.
5. Set up serieS for baking, creating a 3 phases programme (click here for tutorial):
   PHASE 1 192°C (380 °F) 00′:30” 40% top, 10% deck
   PHASE 2 190°C (375 °F) 20′:00” 5% top, 15% deck
   PHASE 3 166°C (330 °F) 15′:00” 10% top, 20% deck
   Press start and let the oven reach the temperature.
6. Once the time has passed, divide the dough into 500g portions and make the so called pirlatura – aka make it round to give it structure.
7. Place the dough in the previously buttered moulds/pans, grease the surface of the cheese Easter pizzas with oil and place them on perforated trays.
8. Leave to rise, always at 28°C, until the dough reaches the top of the mould (approx. 90 minutes). Put in the oven and press Timer 1.
9. Around 5 minutes after the end of the programme, check with the core probe that 94°C has been reached. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then take out of the mould.

Storing the Easter pizza

If stored well in a tightly sealed food bag, the Easter cheese pizza will last up to a week.