Cavallucci are Italian cookies with honey and sugar syrup, nuts, and candied fruit, flavored with anise. They were originally called Berriguocol and were eaten by working-class people soaked in wine. The biscuits are associated with Siena and are traditionally eaten at Christmas with panetone. They have a chewy exterior and a soft interior and are made with aniseed, cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, and honey. Fruits and nuts are also added, and baking ammonia is used in Italian recipes.
Cavallucci is a type of Italian cookie traditionally associated with Christmas gift-giving and holidays. It is made with a syrup of honey and sugar and filled with nuts and candied fruit, with a distinctive anise flavor. The name “cavallucci” means “little horses,” and early versions of the biscuits often featured a printed image of a horse on top. Seahorses contain no shortenings or eggs, so they can be stored for relatively long periods of time.
The original name of this cookie was Berriguocol. Under this name, they have been recorded as part of the festival celebrations since the early 1500s. The name “cavallucci” was given to them when they became a favorite of horse-drawn carriage drivers who ate them at roadside inns that have path. When stored, cookies become hard. Servants and other working-class people ate the biscuits, soaked in wine, as a meal.
The biscuits are sometimes called cavallucci di Siena, after the city of Siena, where they are thought to have originated. It’s an ancient Tuscan tradition to eat not just one, but two pieces of cavallucci and a piece of panetone, a sweet leavened bread, at Christmas time. Although modern seahorses are rarely stored to extreme hardness, they are often served with a variety of wines.
The ingredients in the recipes vary, but aniseed is always used to give the biscuits their unique and distinctive flavour. In some versions anise is the only spice used; in others it is combined with cinnamon or a blend of cinnamon, coriander and nutmeg. The cookies are firm when taken out of the oven, but soften the next day or so until they have a chewy exterior with a softer interior.
Many recipes call for the addition of honey, especially the acacia honey produced in Tuscany. Honey is mixed with sugar and water and boiled to make a syrup. Recipes that exclude honey get sweetness from the use of a sugar syrup. Typically only small amounts of honey are required, about 2 tablespoons (30 mL), just enough to give the biscuits a hint of caramel.
Other common seahorse ingredients are fruits and nuts. The fruit can be candied orange, lemon or citron, or a combination of these. Walnuts are often used, but almonds can be substituted in a recipe. Italian recipes typically call for an ingredient called ammonium bicarbonate, which is also called baking ammonia. Baking soda or baking powder can be successfully replaced with baking ammonia.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
