This year I finally managed to make the famous Rame di Napoli, which, despite their name, are actually typical Catanese sweets, usually consumed starting from the All Saints’ Day and during the Commemoration of the Dead up till the entire Christmas period! The recipe for these wonderful soft and spiced cookies, I owe to a pastry chef friend of mine from the Mascali area, who gifted it to me three years ago. However, for several reasons that I won’t list here, only this year I managed to share it on the blog! Well, better late than never! If you have never been to Sicily, and therefore never had the chance to taste them, with this recipe, you will have the chance to enjoy cocoa sweets, super aromatic and covered with a dark chocolate glaze and pistachio grains that will blow your mind! The story of this iconic cookie finds its most accredited explanation in the account of their preparation by a Catanese pastry chef to celebrate the special copper alloy coin, introduced in 1816 with the Unification of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies under the Bourbons, of which Naples was the capital! Other hypotheses are emerging today, but whatever their origin and the reason for their name, the Rame are absolutely irresistible! Their preparation might seem impossible, but in reality, it is really simple. You’ll just have to mix all the ingredients in a bowl and shape the cookies by hand. After baking them, you can proceed to glaze them, having the patience to wait for the coating to dry before indulging in them! I know, it’s hard but you can do it! What I propose here is the recipe in its original version, made with Sicilian orange marmalade both in the dough and under the chocolate glaze. But there are many other variants that I’ll show you later, which include an even more delicious filling like Nutella or, my favorites, with hazelnut, almond, and pistachio cream.
Below I leave you other typical sweet recipes from my land that you can try to make based on the holiday they are linked to or simply to enjoy their goodness comfortably at home:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 12 rame
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Saints, Day of the Dead
Ingredients
⚠ THIS RECIPE CONTAINS ONE OR MORE AFFILIATE LINKS. The products I recommend are the same ones I use in my recipes; purchasing them through my blog helps support me and my work, while it will not cost you anything more!
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup butter
- 2 tbsps wildflower honey (or acacia)
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tbsps orange marmalade
- 1 orange zest (or untreated lemon)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsps baking powder (or baking ammonia)
- 12 tsps orange marmalade
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate 75%
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- to taste pistachio grains
Tools
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Mixing Bowl
- 1 Sifter
- 1 Ladle
- 2 Gloves
- 1 Kitchen Scale
- 1 Baking Tray
- 1 Baking Mat
- 1 Cooling Rack
- 1 Teaspoon
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Parchment Paper
Steps
First, melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.
Once completely melted, turn off and let it cool slightly.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar with the orange or lemon zest.
Add also the ground cloves and cinnamon.
Combine the cooled melted butter and honey.
Sift the cocoa and baking powder, add it to the mixture and stir with a wooden spoon.
Incorporate 2 tablespoons of orange marmalade and stir again.
Finish by adding the sifted flour alternating with the milk.
Mix first with a wooden spoon and then, as the mixture thickens, with your hands until you get a soft, smooth, and non-sticky dough.
Take portions of dough weighing about 50-55 grams each, no more.
Shape into balls with your hands as if making meatballs.
Place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or a perforated silicone baking mat as I did, and flatten them slightly.
Continue this way until all the dough is used up, spacing them apart. Bake the Rame di Napoli in a preheated static oven at 356°F for 10′-12′, no longer, otherwise they will lose their softness.
Once ready, turn off and let the cookies cool for a few minutes on a cooling rack to gain consistency, as at first they will still seem very soft.
Once cooled, place a teaspoon of orange marmalade on each.
Meanwhile, melt the dark chocolate broken into pieces in a double boiler**.
Immediately add the teaspoon of oil, so the chocolate becomes shinier.
Dip only the surface of each cookie in the melted chocolate.
And arrange them, one by one, on a baking tray with parchment paper.
Sprinkle the surface immediately with pistachio grains***.
You can also use some whole pistachios to distinguish the type of filling you will use and let the chocolate dry for at least 3-4 hours****.
And voila…the Catanese Rame di Napoli are ready to be enjoyed!
Enjoy them with an aromatic infusion, hot tea, or even as a sweet after meal!
Bon Appétit from La Cucina di FeFè!
Storage
👉 The Rame di Napoli can be stored in a cool, dry place in a container, preferably glass, with a hermetic seal for up to one week.
Tips, notes, variations, and suggestions
🟣 If you have a stand mixer, you can put all the ingredients together in the bowl and work them for a few minutes using the K or paddle attachment.
🟣* If you don’t like the taste of orange marmalade too much, you can skip the filling step and go directly to the dark chocolate glazing. Or, you can replace the orange marmalade with apricot jam or even think of using a more indulgent filling with pistachio or hazelnut spread, etc. before coating the surface with melted chocolate.
🟣** As an alternative to melting in a double boiler, you can melt the chocolate even faster in the microwave in 3 intervals of 45” at 750W, stirring after each interval.
🟣*** If you don’t have pistachio grains, you can easily replace them with simple pistachio flour.
🟣**** Let the glaze dry for more than 3 hours if you see that touching the cookies still stains your fingers. My advice is to place them in a large container where they can be aligned without overlapping for the entire night. Afterwards, you can safely arrange them in a large glass jar without problems.
