Cuccidati

Sicilian biscuits enclosing a dark fig and nut paste, left to mature before baking.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), honey.

Ingredients

• 300 g dried figs, stalks off
• 100 g raisins
• 100 g almonds, toasted
• 80 g walnuts
• 100 g honey
• 60 g dark chocolate
• zest and juice of 1 orange
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 400 g plain flour, for the pastry
• 150 g butter, for the pastry
• 120 g caster sugar, for the pastry
• 2 eggs, for the pastry
• 1 teaspoon baking powder, for the pastry
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Mince the figs, raisins, almonds, walnuts and chocolate together coarsely — a texture, not a purée.
2. Mix in the honey, orange zest and juice, spices and salt.
3. LEAVE THE FILLING COVERED AT ROOM TEMPERATURE FOR 24 HOURS. The figs take up the juice and honey and the spices spread through it. Used the same day, the filling tastes of separate ingredients sitting next to each other.
4. Make a short pastry with the flour, butter, sugar, eggs and baking powder, and chill it an hour.
5. Roll strips 8 cm wide, pipe a rope of filling down each, and fold the pastry over to enclose it. Seal the seam well.
6. Cut into 5 cm lengths, curve each slightly, and snip the outer edge three times with scissors so the filling shows.
7. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes until pale gold. Ice them white or leave them plain.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes