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| Typical Products: Cakes and biscuits |
For anyone who loves the sweet life, and who is not over-worried about a few extra calories, the biscuits and cakes of the tradition of Colle val D’Elsa are as simple and as tasty as you could wish for.
A mixture of the aristocratic and rustic culinary tradition has given rise to a host of products, the ingredients of which are often surprising, as is their taste.
Accompanied with a glass of vin santo, in the best Tuscan tradition, they are suitable to be enjoyed at any time of day.
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CANTUCCI
Tuscan cantucci, or Prato cantucci, are made by diagonally cutting up lengths of biscuit mixture containing whole almonds (around 20%) and pine-nut kernels (around 2%).
The biscuits are crispy and golden-brown on the outside; viewed side-on, along the line of the cut, one can see the characteristic sliced almonds, of which there are many.
These biscuits keep longer than others because they are very dry; thanks to their hard or crumbly texture, they are often eaten after dunking them in vin santo.
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CASTAGNACCIO
Castagnaccio is a typical Tuscan sweet made from chestnut flour. Brown and more or less dark in color, according to the kind of flour that is used, it is fairly flat in appearance with a compact, but soft texture.
It is not stabilized in any way, and accordingly needs to be eaten while still fresh, at most three days after it is made.
Recently raisins and pine-nut kernels have been added to the mixture. In our part of Tuscany small pieces of rosemary are placed on top.
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CAVALLUCCI
Cavallucci are coarse-made biscuits, irregular in shape, and somewhat large. They are off-white in colour, with a spongey and solid texture, and taste of walnuts, aniseed, and candied fruit.
Water, honey, and sugar are dissolved in a pan, and the resulting caramel is mixed with flour, candied fruit (orange, citron), walnuts, honey, soya flour, aniseed, coriander, and yeast. Long lengths
are made from the mixture, around 2 cm in diameter, and these are divided into small pieces and placed on a baking tray ready for baking. They are baked at 200°C for around 30 minutes.
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CENCI
Cenci are small rectangles of fried sweet pastry. They take their name from their distinctive shape after cooking, which resemble pieces of rag cloth ('cenci'). They are crisp and golden, and are usually coated in icing sugar.
They are sweet and taste of vanilla, and are made at carnival time, in January and February.
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MIGLIACCIO
Migliaccio is round and flat, like an omelette, is cooked in a pan greased with lard. It is dusted with icing sugar, and decorated with walnuts, with the addition of typical products as used in the Sienese tradition of cakes and sweets.
Sienese migliaccio is a very rich sweet made, believe it or not, from pig’s blood, eggs, flour, sugar, lard, meat juices, chopped walnuts, dry biscuits, and sweets from the Sienese tradition, such as panforte and cavallucci, which are typically
left over from the Christmas festivities, at the very time when pigs are traditionally slaughtered.
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PAN CO' SANTI
Pan co' Santi is a kind of sweet bread made with walnuts and raisins. It is roughly round in shape and is dark brown in colour. It is very fragrant, with a fairly soft, spongey consistency. Generally, each “loaf” weighs half a kilo. It is made between September and November, specially for the All Saints’ feast day, which falls on 1 November.
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PANFORTE
Panforte is a round-shaped, flat, and solid kind of “cake”. It can be white or dark, depending on whether it is dusted with icing sugar or cocoa. It has a wrinkled surface, and underneath it has a thin base of rice paper. It tastes strongly of spices and candied fruit, has a solid texture, and is slightly chewy.
To make white panforte, the following ingredients are mixed together: flour, sugar, candied orange and citron fruit, honey, vanilla and cinnamon; for dark panforte, candied melon is used instead of citron, and cocoa and chili pepper are also used. Individual panfortes are formed by hand, with icing sugar being added later on for white panforte,
and cocoa for dark panforte. It is then baked at 200°C; each panforte is then individually wrapped by hand.
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RICCIARELLI
Ricciarelli biscuits have a more or less even, elongated oval shape; their taste and smell are very sweet, and typical of almond paste. They are very soft and spongey, and white in color, owing to a dusting of icing sugar on top. Also, they are cracked and wrinkled on top. Another variety is covered in chocolate.
After the almonds are ground, they are mixed with egg white, honey, sugar, a raising agent and flavourings. The ingredients are mixed together thoroughly, and the individual biscuits are formed using special moulds. They are placed on cooking trays, and dusted with icing sugar, before being baked in the oven at 180°C for 25 minutes. Chocolate ricciarelli are covered with dark chocolate.
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"Why are men no longer cannibals? Well, one needs to believe in some progress in cooking, after all."
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, Poet (1909-1966)
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