Receta olive oil and wine ciambelline cookies
light, crispy ciambelline, fragrant of fennel and anise
What an exciting and busy time this is! Summer is finished and fall has descended on us with all its gorgeous beauty. Olive harvest is well underway. This year we are gifted by the much needed help of friends who have come all the way from Singapore for the event, how delightful!
It’s a lot of work but we are having a fabulous time. Beside picking, we have been doing a great deal of laughing, chatting, cooking and drinking. We’ll probably be ready in one more day and then we’ll need to wait until next week for the pressing and bottling to enjoy our emerald liquid.
The only and real “Alla Madonna del Piatto olive oil“.
The last few B&B/cooking guests will be arriving this week-end for our first – of I hope many – Pasta and Vino Tour. We should actually call it Pasta and Vino and Olive oil tour as it will be heavy on the bruschetta .
This is an extraordinary time to be here, wineries are buzzing with activity, there are food festivals and farmer markets in many of the hilltop villages. Olive mills are running 24/7, everybody is out and about with nets and ladders to pick olives until dusk. And if that was not enough, there are mushrooms, truffle, thick farro soups, polenta, pumpkin, fresh fennel and cime di rapa to add to the cornucopia of incredible foods available just now. Add the salami and life is perfect.
Last night, tired after a day of trodding up and down the hill, we prepared a light dish of homemade gnocchi with pesto and these cookies. The term ciambelline means small ring cookies. They are as “seasonal” as a cookie can get as they are made with wine and olive oil. One can while the night away with a tray of these and a good bottle of sweet wine to deep them in.
Recipe
- 450 gr (3 cups) 00 or pastry flour, better if organic and unbleached
- 150 ml (1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil
- 150 ml (1/2 cup) white wine
- 2 tablespoon anise seeds
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 130 gr (1/2 cup) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup white regular sugar for coating
Preheat oven at 160 °C (340 ° F). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place all dry ingredients – except the white sugar – in a food processor bowl. Using the blade at high speed, add the oil and wine and blend until most of the mixture forms a soft ball of dough, about 2 minutes.
If you don’t have a food processor or mixer, make the dough in a large bowl by hand and transfer on a lightly floured worktop.
Sprinkle the white sugar on a large flat plate or cutting board. On the worktop, roll the dough into 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) thick cylinders. Cut each cylinder into 10 cm (5 inch) pieces and roll them into the white sugar to coat.
roll the dough cylinders in sugar, then form the rings
Pinch the ends of each cylinder together to form a ring.
Carefully arrange the rings on a the baking sheet. Bake for 30-35 min until just golden around the sides.
Cool on a wire rack and serve with sweet wine like a vinsanto, passito or marsala or a big mug of herbal tea.
Makes approx. 36 ciambelline.
Like Loading...