We wish you a Christmas, full of citrus and spicy scents, like these sweets of the Tuscan tradition!
ingredients (cost about 5 € for 20 pieces)
- 250 g pastry flour
- 125 g walnuts
- 20 g candied orange peels
- 1 g ground anise
- 1 g ground coriander
- 5 g baking powder
- 1,5 g baking ammonia
- 1 g salt
- 75 g sugar
- 75 g floral honey (I used orange blossom honey)
- 80 ml water
- a blend of 10 g flour + 10 g icing sugar for coating the pastries
The Tuscan tradition has many delicious Christmas pastries to present. One of them, are the Sienese Cavallucci.
The cavallucci are based on a simple, fatless, eggless and super fragrant dough, made with flour, walnuts, candied peels, a honey syrup (preferably a floral one) and spices – anise and coriander, in particular. These delicious pastries are perfect to be consumed drenched in a sweet dessert wine, such as the typical Tuscan Vinsanto, or a Moscato, a Marsala or even a sparkling Asti. But they are also perfect with tea.
As for their name (it means “little horses” in Italian) there are many hypotheses. According to the most popular version, they used to be served by the local taverns to travelers on horseback, as a source of nourishment for long trips. Other interesting speculations are that they were the usual snack of servants who worked in horse stables of rich Italian aristocrats in Siena or even that postal workers who delivered mail over long distances ate these pastries on a regular basis.
So let’s make them.
First of all we sift flour, baking powder, baking ammonia, salt and spices, ground the very last moment. We stir well so that the ingredients are well blended. We then add the walnuts, coarsely chopped and the candied peels, cut in small dice and we mix well. We keep aside.
In a saucepan we pour the sugar, the honey and 50 ml of the water and we bring to a a boil. We let the syrup boil, until it thickens enough and small blisters start bursting on the surface (if you have a thermometer it should reach 120 o C).
We make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and we pour in the syrup. We mix with a wooden spoon, adding a little water, until the dough comes together. Keep in mind, that depending on the type of flour we are using, the amount of liquid we are adding may vary (not every flour has the same absorbing capacity). I used 30 ml of water. In the end the dough will be a little sticky.
We shape the cavallucci, by cutting pieces from the dough and weighing them to be about 25-30 g each. We form them gently in our palm on round shapes and we gently pass them from the flour – icing sugar blend. We pinch them with our fingers to make them resemble dimples and and we place them on baking sheets lined with parchment , leaving enough space between them, because during baking they will expand.
We bake them in a ventilated oven at 140 o C for about 17-18 minutes, or until they are lightly colored.
We transfer the biscuits on a wire rack, until they cool completely, then we store them in a aluminum box lined with parchment.
