Friselle are a kind of twice-baked tarallo, typical of southern Italy for preparing a quick and fresh meal often accompanied by seasoned red cherry tomatoes but can be eaten plain or with your preferred topping. Friselle are not considered bread because they are baked until they become very crunchy. Often before being topped, friselle are soaked in water as is done for preparing panzanella. They can be made with different flours and shapes, but typically friselle are horizontal-cut donuts, hence the typical “hole” in the center. There are many variants of friselle; the most typical ones are made with semolina flour and sourdough, as I will show you in the following recipes. In this recipe, I prepared the friselle with white flour and yeast, but I will also indicate the quantities to prepare them with sourdough.

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Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very cheap
Rest time: 2 Hours
Preparation time: 5 Minutes
Portions: 20 friselle
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Spring, Summer, and Autumn

286.77 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 286.77 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 43.67 (g) of which sugars 1.46 (g)
Proteins 6.89 (g)
Fat 10.42 (g) of which saturated 1.38 (g)of which unsaturated 8.33 (g)
Fibers 1.36 (g)
Sodium 270.28 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 40 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients

The ingredients to make these friselle are simple and easily available.

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/16 cups water (warm)
2 1/4 tsp fresh yeast
1 tsp honey
1/2 cup seed oil
1 tsp salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
5 1/4 oz sourdough
1 1/16 cups water (warm)
1 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup seed oil

Dough Tools

For kneading the friselle, I recommend using a stand mixer with a dough hook

1 Stand Mixer howork

Preparation

Preparing the dough takes a few minutes, but you must respect the rising times, the doubling of the dough, and the resting of the friselle on the baking sheet.

Place the flour, honey, oil, warm water where you have dissolved the yeast, and finally the salt in the stand mixer where you have mounted the dough hook and let it knead for about 5′. The dough will be soft but not sticky.
Put the obtained dough in an oiled salad bowl and make folds by hand before closing it into a loaf, cover the friselle dough with cling film and let it rise at about 86°F until it doubles, with yeast it will take about 90′, with sourdough it will depend on the weather conditions.
When the dough is more than doubled, you can start working it.
Take the risen dough and place it on the lightly floured work surface. By rolling it on itself, create a loaf from which you will cut 10 equal pieces of dough. Roll each piece with the palm of your hand to create balls that you will pierce in the center to create your donuts to rest on the baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Cover your donuts with a cloth and let them rest for at least 30′ for yeast dough, whereas with sourdough, at least 1 hour.
After resting, your friselle are ready to be baked in a preheated oven at 428°F for about 15′. They will grow quite a bit in the oven, so do not place them too close on the baking sheet.
When the friselle are golden on the surface but not fully cooked, take them out of the oven and let them cool a bit to allow you to cut them in half horizontally with a good bread knife. Place your friselle back on the baking sheet, which you will have meanwhile lowered to 356°F, and let them toast until fully golden, which will take another 15′.