The Copper Coins of Naples are a traditional Sicilian dessert, from the Catanese tradition of the Day of the Dead. Soft, spiced, and covered in chocolate, they are a culinary symbol of autumn in Sicily.
The Copper Coins of Naples are a soft cocoa cookie, enriched with spices such as cinnamon and cloves, orange zest, and honey, and covered with a dark chocolate glaze with pistachio crumbles.

The name, The Copper Coins of Naples, might be misleading: it has nothing to do with the city of Naples. The Copper Coins of Naples have a lot of history behind them, the most accredited dates back to the Bourbon era, after the annexation of Sicily to the Kingdom of Naples (1816), when a new copper alloy coin was minted, of lesser value, which replaced the gold and silver ones.
It is said that the Catanesi, dissatisfied with the change, jokingly created a dessert similar in appearance to the new coin…
During the Day of the Dead, The Copper Coins of Naples are given to “good” children as a symbolic gift from the deceased. It is a loving gesture that combines memory and sweetness, highly appreciated in Sicilian culture.
To accommodate those with glycemic index problems, you will find alongside the traditional ingredients also those suitable for the aforementioned condition.

Recipes designed for you:

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Affordable
Preparation time: 30 Minutes
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Regional Italian
Region: Sicily
Seasonality: Autumn, Winter and Spring, All Saints

157.80 Kcal

calories per serving

Info Close

Energy 157.80 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 22.77 (g) of which sugars 9.59 (g)
Proteins 3.08 (g)
Fat 7.43 (g) of which saturated 3.30 (g)of which unsaturated 3.88 (g)
Fibers 2.21 (g)
Sodium 2.91 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 34 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

Let’s go shopping

2 cups all-purpose flour (or FiberPasta flour)
1/2 cup sugar (or 1 cup erythritol or 1/3 cup of Stevia, both powdered)
2/3 cup milk (if using FiberPasta flour, use 3/4 cup milk)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup lard (or butter)
1 oz wildflower honey (or 1 1/3 oz erythritol or 1/3 oz of powdered stevia)
2 tsp baking powder (or baking ammonia or cream of tartar)
to taste orange zest (from a whole organic orange)
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 cup orange marmalade (or sugar-free orange compote, click here)
1/4 cup butter
to taste pistachio crumbles

The Copper Coins of Naples

Tools

What I need to prepare

1 Bowl or a mixer
2 Baking sheets
1 Parchment paper
1 Pastry board
1 Pot
1 Cooling rack

Steps

To make

It’s not difficult, it is quite simple to make: the dough is prepared in 5 minutes, then proceed to the glazing which will take a little time since we have to coat each cookie one by one.
In a bowl or your mixer, put the sifted flour with the baking ammonia (or cream of tartar or baking powder), then the salt, the grated zest of an orange, the cinnamon, the cloves in powder, the unsweetened cocoa, the honey, the lard in pieces, and the whole milk.
Gently mix the mixture until it has absorbed the milk.
Then transfer the mixture onto a damp pastry board and knead by hand until you get a coarse and sticky dough.
Continue gently until you get a smooth and homogeneous dough, even if slightly sticky.
Now moisten your hands and form balls of the same weight, about 1.1 or 1.4 oz each. I gave them a round and slightly flattened shape, but they can also be made oval.
Once created, smooth them out and gently press them to flatten them, and place them well spaced on the baking sheet, be careful because they grow a little and you don’t want them to stick to each other.
Preheat the static oven to 356°F, and only when it reaches the temperature, insert the baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes.
During baking, you will see that the Copper Coins of Naples will swell and their surface will present cracks.
Once the time has passed, take them out of the oven and let them cool completely.
Heat the orange marmalade in a bain-marie and brush the Copper Coins of Naples with marmalade.
Transfer the Copper Coins onto a cooling rack and melt the chocolate with the butter in a bain-marie, and when you have a glossy and fluid cream,
with your hands or a fork, dip each cookie in the chocolate glaze, covering only the top part of each Copper Coin.
Transfer the cookies to drain on a cooling rack and gradually sprinkle with pistachio crumbles or powder, as you prefer.
Let the Copper Coins of Naples rest until the glaze hardens.
The Copper Coins of Naples are ready.