I follow an historic food writer on Instagram, and every now and then she posts a recipe I want to try. These delectable things were definitely one, and when I approached my mother-in-law about it, she enthusiastically embraced the idea of me inflicting experimental historic cooking on the entire family. So I sent a short list of missing things with my sister-in-law who was off to the shops, and the next day took over the kitchen.
Required historical context
Disclaimer: I haven't given this the due research diligence it deserves, nor have I followed all of the potential rabbit holes there are to go down. I just wanted to bake cookies that had the one-two punch of being arguably from my persona's time and place, and being a derivative of my persona's name.
Having said that, though, internet historians say that these delightful things, now known as cavallucci, have evolved from a biscuit/cookie that dates from the late 15th century in Siena, Tuscany, when they were apparently given to travellers on horseback (cavallo = horse, in Italian). At the time, though, they seem to have been called biriquocoli, and may not have included the candied peel or the actual sugar. Further research on this is definitely required, with much R&D. Pity me.
Over time, they evolved - as these things do - to be a bit of a showcase for people with cash, becoming a 'traditional' gift around various holidays, and also seem to benefit from being dipped into Vin Santo, or the like. Again, pity me as I research this thoroughly.
Recipe
This recipe, from @historicalitalianfood is definitely modern. She typically neglects to cite any sources, sadly, but her recipes are accessible to non-nerds, so that's cool. Frustrating for me, though.
---
300g type 0 flour (all purpose is fine)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp finely ground pepper
1/2 tsp crushed (not ground) anise seed
50g candied orange peel
50g candied citron peel
100g toasted walnuts, chopped
75g water
150g sugar
75g honey
Preheat: 160°C
In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients, except for the sugar, then add the peels and nuts. Mix the water, sugar, and honey in a saucepan and heat until dissolved. Using a wooden spoon, mix the liquid into the dry ingredients and stir until fully incorporated. Form a log on a floured surface. Cut hunks and shape with floured hands. Part of their charm is that thrown-together look, so don’t fuss too much.
Bake for 25 min. Cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
---
The modifications I made were to use pecans instead of walnuts (because I hate walnuts), and I dialled back the anise seed a bit (because most people in the house hate the taste). Also, she doesn't give decent instruction on what size of dough hunks you should use, so I went with ping-pong/table tennis ball sized wads and gave them a bit of a smash to flatten them somewhat. I also just pulled said wads off of the log (::snicker::) rather than cut them, because arsed was a thing I could not be. She also doesn't give any indication of how many this recipe can/should make so, for the record, I ended up with about 35, in the end.
Meanwhile, on the internet...
The obvious modern inclusion, above, is bicarbonate of soda. This sparked a useful and interesting exchange on our #food channel on Drachenwald Slack, but also with my in-laws. I would venture to guess that chemical leavening wasn't in common use, in 15th/16th c. Italy, but I have some good leads on it being used, in various forms, elsewhere in Europe, so who knows. Still, armed with my doubts, I dug around for more recipes and found several that were, essentially, identical to the above but without bicarb/baking soda (and, in the below instance, without the honey). I include this one, both as contrast but also so I can find it again later when I do serious compare/contrast research. Pity me.
---
- 300 gr white flour
- 300 gr sugar
- 300 gr walnut kernels
- 50 gr candied orange
- 15 gr anise
- 5 gr spices and powdered cinnamon
Roughly mince the walnuts and chop the orange into small pieces. Melt the sugar: use a heavy duty all clad saucepan, 300 grams of sugar on medium heat, and a wooden spoon to stir with. The best way is to just stand over it and stir in non-stop. It will take a while, but you won't have to worry about it burning. As soon as all the sugar is completely melted, remove the pan from the heat. Place the flour onto the pastry board, scoop out a well in the middle and pour all the ingredients there. Start kneading till you have a compact homogeneous dough, adding as much flour as needed. Divide the dough into small pieces to make many oval-shaped cavallucci.
Sprinkle the tops with flour and place them into the baking sheet. Bake into pre-heated oven to 200 degrees C for about 30 minutes.
---
A review of these two together reminds me of a thing: I'd preheated the oven to 160c, as the top recipe suggested, but the baking time was way off. I'd recommend a slightly warmer oven, but perhaps not as hot as 200c, but it would definitely depend on your oven.
At any rate, have an excellent Festive Period(tm), and we'll see what sort of shenanigans I can get up to in the new year!
Comments