The Rame di Napoli are spiced cocoa cookies glazed with dark chocolate and topped with pistachio crumbs.
Despite their name, these cookies are not typical of Neapolitan pastry but rather Sicilian, specifically from the province of Catania where they are prepared for the commemoration of the deceased on November 2nd.
So, what does Naples have to do with these cookies? The most credible hypothesis is that they were first made by Catanese pastry chefs to celebrate the special coin, containing a copper alloy, introduced after the unification of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816, of which Naples was the capital.
Making them at home is very easy, you just need to mix in the bowl of the stand mixer (or a simple bowl), flour, cocoa, sugar and honey, together with soft butter, spices (cinnamon and cloves), orange aroma, and milk. As you can see, these cookies are egg-free.
Once baked, the cookies are brushed with orange marmalade, glazed with dark chocolate, and sprinkled with pistachio crumbs.
Now take a minute to read the recipe and then… let’s cook and eat!!
See also
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Cooking time: 20 Minutes
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Day of the Dead
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup butter (soft)
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp wildflower honey
- to taste orange zest (or 1 tsp orange aroma)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 5 g baking ammonia (or 1/2 packet baking powder)
- to taste orange marmalade
- 200 g 50% dark chocolate
- 2 1/2 tbsp butter
- to taste pistachio crumbs
Tools
- 1 Stand Mixer
- 1 Kitchen Scale
- 1 Sieve
- 1 Baking Tray
- 1 Parchment Paper
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Cooling Rack
- 1 Brush silicone
Steps
The base dough for Rame di Napoli is prepared very quickly, especially if you have a stand mixer. In the mixer bowl, gather the sifted flour and cocoa, then add the sugar and honey, the softened butter, the ground spices mix, the orange aroma (or better yet, the zest of an organic orange), and finally the milk in which you have dissolved the baking ammonia. Mix with the paddle attachment until you get a homogeneous but slightly sticky dough.
Once the dough is ready, transfer it to a bowl and, with wet hands, detach pieces of about 1 oz (the size of a walnut) and form balls.
As they are ready, place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake the cookies in a preheated static oven at 350°F for 20 minutes, then let them cool completely on a cooling rack before brushing the surface of each cookie with orange marmalade (if necessary, warm the marmalade a bit to make it more fluid).
Finally, proceed to glazing. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the dark chocolate and butter, then dip the cookies into the glaze so that the surface is completely covered with chocolate.
Place your Rame di Napoli back on the cooling rack (to allow any excess glaze to drip off) and sprinkle the surface of the cookies with pistachio crumbs.
Let the Rame di Napoli rest until the glaze hardens, then they’re ready to taste 😉
