A pillow-soft sponge from Guardiagrele in the province of Chieti, raised on nothing but whole eggs and sugar whipped to a foam, baked, then split and filled with vanilla pastry cream piped into three tall peaks and buried under a heavy fall of icing sugar. Also called Tre Monti after Abruzzo's three great massifs — the Gran Sasso, the Maiella and the Sirente-Velino — it is an Abruzzo PAT still made by two neighbouring pastry shops in the old town.
The sweet was born in the convent of Santa Chiara at Guardiagrele, where the Poor Clares first made it for the feast of Sant'Agata, the martyr invoked against breast ailments whose emblem is her own severed breasts. Its blunt dialect name, sise (breasts), and its three-peaked shape are explained three ways: as protuberances the nuns are said to have padded into their habits, as a devotional sweet for Sant'Agata, and, more playfully, after a quip by a local dialect poet. The nuns passed the recipe to the Palmerio family, who opened Guardiagrele's first pastry shop in 1913 and put the sise on sale; alternately titled Tre Monti for the Gran Sasso, the Maiella and the Sirente-Velino, it is listed as an Abruzzo PAT and is still made by two neighbouring shops in the old town.
The sponge is exceptionally light and dry-crumbed, almost weightless, dissolving on the tongue; between the layers the pastry cream is cool, silky and scented with lemon and vanilla, and the thick fall of icing sugar melts to a soft sweetness that clings to the lips.
With no baking powder in the batter, the sponge rises on air alone. Whipping whole eggs with sugar folds in a dense foam of tiny bubbles, and the sugar raises the temperature at which the egg proteins set, giving the bubbles time to expand in the oven before ovalbumin and the other proteins coagulate and the flour starch gelatinises, locking the foam into a fine, elastic crumb. The filling is a starch-bound custard: as it heats, egg-yolk proteins and gelatinised flour starch trap the milk into a spoonable cream, while the yolk's lecithin keeps it smooth. The open crumb readily takes up moisture, so the icing sugar on top slowly draws water from the cream and the air and softens into a melting veil.
Variations
The pastry cream is most often plain vanilla, sometimes scented with lemon zest, and a few makers streak in chocolate cream or sour-cherry jam. The three peaks are the fixed form, though home versions may be built lower and broader or as individual single-peak cakes; constant throughout are the leaveningless egg sponge and the final blizzard of icing sugar.
On the Palate
Where Sise delle Monache sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
7 steps · 30 min
- 112 min
Whip the whole eggs with the sugar for about ten minutes, until pale, tripled in volume and falling from the whisk in a thick ribbon; this air is the sponge's only leavening.
Watch outWhip the eggs and sugar a full ten minutes until they triple and fall in a thick ribbon — this air is the only lift, and underwhipped batter bakes dense and flat.
- 24 min
Sift the cake flour over the foam and fold it in gently by hand, in a few large strokes, so the bubbles are not knocked out.
Watch outFold the flour in gently with a few big strokes — stir hard and you deflate the foam, and the sponge loses its spring.
- 322 min
Spread the batter into a lined tray and bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes, until springy and pale gold, then cool completely.
- 420 min
Make the pastry cream: heat the milk with lemon zest, whisk the yolks with sugar and cornstarch, combine and cook, stirring, until thick, then cool under a film of cling wrap.
- 58 min
Cut the cooled sponge into rounds or rectangles and pipe the pastry cream onto a base piece in three tall mounds.
- 65 min
Drape a second piece of sponge over the three mounds and press very gently so it takes their shape, forming three distinct peaks.
- 74 min
Chill until set, then dust thickly with icing sugar just before serving, until the top disappears under a heavy white fall.
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