I finally decided to make
the Torcettini today. Something I have wanted to make for a long long time Last
three months were full of travel. Whatever I wanted to make I never got to make
and my to do list piled up….but finally here I am ready to bake my Torcettini.
Actually torcettini project was a part
of the We Knead to Bake March task…..A bread baking group started by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen. But I couldn’t keep to the time lines this time. I was
supposed to make this post in March….But better late than never.
Like how Aparna mentions : They are yeasted dough cookies crunchy on the outside and have a
somewhat bread-like texture on the inside. Torcettini are smaller versions of
Torcetti (meaning small twists) and these pear/ teardrop shaped twists are made
of a dough of flour, yeast and butter which are shaped and then rolled in sugar
before being baked. Traditionally these biscuits/ cookies are shaped by rolling
out bits of dough into “ropes” and then pinching the ends together to form a
“teardrop” shape. These are shaped by crossing the rope of dough near the ends
to pretty looking twists.
These biscuits/ cookies are
synonymous with the town of Saint Vincent in Valle d'Aosta, a small mountainous
region in North-Western Italy, even though they’re well known throughout the
Piedmont region as well.
A detailed recipe is given
below-:
Ingredients
Warm water-1/2 cup
(45C/110F)
Active dry yeast-1 ¼ tsp or
1 tsp instant yeast
All purpose flour-1 ½ cup
Lemon zest/lime/ crushed
anise seed -1 tsp
Cold unsalted butter-40 gms
plus 21/2 tbsp cut into small pieces
Granulated sugar-1/3 cup
for rolling the cookies
Method
Dissolve
the yeast in the warm water, in a small bowl and keep aside.
Put the
flour and the salt in the food processor bowl (or a largish regular bowl if kneading by hand) and pulse a
couple of times to mix. Add the butter .
pieces and pulse until the butter is well mixed and the flour-butter mixture looks powdery.
Add the
yeast-water mixture and pulse till it all comes together as a ball. Do not over
process or knead. Place the ball of dough in an oiled bowl, turning it so it is
well coated with the oil. Cover the bowl, and let the dough rise quite a bit.
This dough does not really double in volume, but it should look “puffy” after
about an hour or so. When you pinch off a bit from the top you can see the
interior looking a bit like honeycomb. Press down the dough and deflate. it, wrap it in cling warp and refrigerate
it for at least one hour or up to 24 hours.
When ready
to make the cookies, take the dough out and lightly roll it out into an
approximately 6” square. If the dough feels sticky, scatter a little sugar on it. Using a pizza
wheel cut the dough into four strips of equal width. Cut each strip into 6 equal
pieces, by cutting across, making a total of 24 pieces. The measurements are
not very critical in this part because this just makes it easier to have 24
equal sized bits of dough, as compared to pinching
of bits of the dough.
Roll each
piece into a pencil thick “rope” about 5” long. Sprinkle a little sugar on your work surface and roll
the “rope” in it so the sugar crusts the dough
uniformly. Form the “rope” into a loop crossing it over before the ends.
Place the
Torcettini on parchment lined baking sheets, leaving 1 1/2" between them. Leave them for
about 20 minutes or so till they rise/ puff up slightly. They will not “puff
up” much, like bread, but the “puff” will be visible.
Bake them
at 160C (325F) for about 25 minutes till they’re a nice golden brown. Cool the cookies
completely, on a rack. Store them in an air-tight container at room temperature.. This recipe makes 24 cookies.
Some tips
For
a variation on these biscuits, you can make them chocolate flavoured. If
making chocolate Torcettini, remove 2 tbsp all-purpose flour and add 2 tbsp
unsweetened cocoa powder. Also add 2 tbsp powdered sugar and replace
the lemon zest with orange zest while making the dough.
Once
your Torcettini have been shaped, don’t let them rise for longer than 20
minutes. If you do, your Torcettini will more bread-like on the inside due to
the extra “rise”.
To
make sure the Torcettini dough does not rise for more than 20 minutes, it’s a
good idea to work on shaping the 2nd batch while the first
batch is in the oven.
If
you do not want to use parchment paper, you can grease you cookie sheets and
place the shaped Torcettini dough on them directly. Just remember to take them
off the sheets while they’re still hot. You will need a spatula to the dislodge
them, and do so carefully so they don’t break. Once they’re cool, the
caramelised sugar on the Torcettini make them stick to cookie sheets and they
become difficult to dislodge without breaking them
