They are the typical Christmas cookies of the holidays tradition, they were given away in small bags to the boys and girls of the villages who went round singing “Befanate” door to door in the evening of January 5 went to announce the Epiphany,
Today “befanini” are prepared in many regions of Italy during the Christmas period and there is no breakfast or snack where they can miss.
In Barga, in addition to the classic biscuit with colored beans, people use to make a more refined kind, with almonds and decorations from high confectionery, tradition still alive in many families.
Here is the recipe collected by friends of Buffardello team the original variant from Barga, to bring in Traditional houses a touch of magic.
What you need :
for the dough:
1 kg flour 00
600 grams sugar
7 eggs
200 grams butter
for marzipan:
200 grams almonds
orange peel
Sugar q.s.
1 ½ egg white
Spirits of Alkermes and/or sassolino (a liqueur) q.s.
How you do:
The dough:
Whisk together sugar and butter until obtain a smooth mixture.
Place the flour and in the center put the eggs, sugar and butter. Stir in the flour gradually in order to avoid lumps. Knead until dough is smooth and homogeneous.
Roll out the dough on a work surface with a rolling pin thick about ½ cm in order to cut in the dough the befanini obtain with cookie cutters or cutting the dough with a glass or just with the knife. You can choices various forms: sheep, stars, trees…
The marzipan:
Mix the grated orange peel, sugar, toasted almonds and minced alkermes, the egg whites and the liqueur.
Put a teaspoon of marzipan on the center of each cookie. Then decorat with small leaves of dough in your imagination. Clamp the cookies with the special pliers for sweets at right angles to form the outline of the befanini.
Bake at 180° degrees until golden brown.
Buon Appetito and… happy Christmas Holiadays!