These cookies with almonds and egg whites (Lucanian recipe) are a typical dessert from Bernalda, a town in the province of Matera. They were created by Mr. Vincenzo Spinelli, owner of the Pasticceria del Corso bar in 1977, who jealously guards the original recipe. This is the one given to me by my sister-in-law, who is from Bernalda, and might be the one created by the pastry chef?
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 45 Minutes
- Portions: 70 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian Regional
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 12.35 oz almonds
- 12.35 oz sugar
- 6.17 oz egg whites
- 7.05 oz dark chocolate
- 7.05 oz white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (various)
Preparation
Place the almonds on the baking tray and roast them at 212°F for about 15 minutes.
Blend them in the food processor until you obtain a not too fine, rather coarse flour.
In the meantime, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Add the sugar and continue whisking until you get a solid and glossy mixture.
Now add the chopped almonds to the meringue and gently mix with a spatula.
Take a teaspoon of the mixture and drop it onto the baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Space them out, as they will spread during baking.
Bake at 356°F for about 10 minutes, until they are slightly cracked on the surface.
Gently detach them from the parchment paper with a knife and separate them if they have stuck together.
As soon as you take them out of the oven, you must perform the operation to fold them into their characteristic shape: place a cookie on the palm of your hand, place your index finger on top, folding it slightly, closing the palm of your hand a little with the cookie resting on it.
Melt the dark chocolate in a non-stick pan and the white chocolate in another pan (if your pan doesn’t have a non-stick bottom, it’s advisable to melt the chocolate in a bain-marie).
To make it shiny, add a tablespoon of vegetable oil, and in a few minutes, you will have a melted, glossy, and homogeneous chocolate.
With a teaspoon, take some melted white chocolate, let it drip onto the cookie, decorating half of the prepared cookies.
Do the same with the dark chocolate for the other half.
Place in the fridge for at least half an hour before enjoying them.
Tips/Advice
With these quantities, you will make about 70 cookies.
To make the chocolate shiny, I recommend adding a tablespoon of vegetable oil while melting it.
To fold the cookie, you need to handle it while it’s still warm before it hardens.
The egg whites must be whipped to very stiff peaks.
If you enjoyed the cookies with almonds and egg whites (Lucanian recipe), try other sweet recipes from Basilicata:
Spaghetti with Green Beans and Ricotta Cheese
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