Torcettini di Saint Vincent

I am at the end of my gastronomic exploration of Valle d'Aosta! The food that I made this week was great, but really left me longing for the classic tastes of Italian food.  It is amazing how different the food in northern Italy is from the food in central and southern Italy.  You can definitely see just how much influence the bordering nations have on the cuisine of northern Italy!

For a dessert, I chose to make the cookies that Valle d'Aosta is famous for - Torcettini di Saint Vincent.  These cookies are a little on the crunchier side, but if you want them softer just take them out of the oven after about 15 minutes.  For a tasty variation, you could add some cinnamon to the sugar when you are rolling out the dough.  Enjoy!

Tocettini di Saint Vincent

Adapted from Baking Obsession

Makes 48 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

5 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cut into tablespoons

About 2/3 cup sugar for rolling

Preparation:

1. Combine the water and yeast in a small bowl. Cover until needed.
2. Whisk together the flour and salt to fully combine.  Add in the butter and mix with your hands until the butter in completely incorporated.  The mixture will still be powdery at this point.
3. Add the yeast mixture all at once.  Stir or mix with your hands until the dough begins to form a ball. Put on a lightly floured surface and fold the dough onto itself 3 or 4 times until no longer sticky.
4. Put the dough in a greased bowl and turn over so that the top gets greased as well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for about an hour to allow the dough to rise.
5. Press the dough down to deflate it.  Chill dough for at least 1 hour.
6. Cover cookie sheets with parchment paper.
7. Remove dough from refrigerator and press into an 8 inch square.  If still sticky, sugar the surface you are using.
8. Cut the dough into 8 1-inch strips.  Cut each strip into 6 equal pieces.
9. Roll each piece of dough on a sugared surface into a pencil thin strip about 5 inches long.  Form a loop by crossing the ends about 1 inch up from the ends. Place on cookie sheets, leaving about 1 inch space between each. Let cookies stand at room temperature about 15-20 minutes until they puff slightly.
10. While forming the cookies, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
11. Bake cookies in batches for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
12. Remove from parchment paper immediately and place on cooling rack to cool.  (If you don't, the caramelized sugar will stick to the parchment paper and you will spend an extra 20 minutes peeling paper off the bottom of your first batch.)

 

Ryan's rating of Torcettini di Saint Vincent - 3.5.

 

Next week I will be moving on to the food from the Piemonte region!

Comments

[Momma C]

Ok, I'm going to go get Fontina cheese on my lunch break. I didn't get a chance to check out the last two posts until now (8/17) so my comment is a bit late. Definately doing the veal, I mean, PORK tomorrow with the prosciutto. Wow, this is just an awesome idea and inspiration for me. Thanks, Suz.

[Momma C]

These look like they would be great for breakfast.

[Jeanne]

Yes! For breakfast with espresso from my fancy new maker (Thanks, Boog).

[Sue]

Mmmm...these would be great for breakfast! They are much closer to a pastry than a cookie.

[Rene Maher]

My great grandmother and grandmother called these Torchette. I've discovered that they are called Torcetti al burro. In the Piedmont region, these cookies are made thinner. It's interesting that Nick Malgieri called them "Twisted cookies".

[Sue]

Thanks for sharing, Rene! Your family must have some great recipes! Its so interesting how many Italian regional recipes can actually be found in different forms in many of the surrounding regions as well.