Regina biscuits, the recipe for Catania’s lemon-glazed biscuits, traditional sweets of the Feast of the Dead, such as rame di Napoli, nzuddi, ossa di morto, cotognata and mostarda.
The beginning of autumn in Catania centers on preparing a series of long-standing traditional sweets tied to the celebration of All Saints, also called the “Feast of the Dead”. Many specialties that by tradition represented the gift the deceased gave on November 2nd to children as thanks for their visit to the cemetery on November 1st, and which today fill cafes, bakeries and food shops across the province from the end of September through December. The biscuits I talk about today, like many sweets linked to this tradition, were once poor people’s sweets made with leftover bread dough, just like their counterparts the bersaglieri, and had a dry, not very tasty dough that, once baked, was enriched with an abundant lemon glaze. Children would nibble off all the glaze and leave the biscuit, being scolded by adults.
Now that times have changed and a sweet must be good as well as sweet, the recipe has been significantly modified, turning the regina biscuits and the bersaglieri biscuits into very soft glazed treats that melt in your mouth and have a delicate flavor. Let’s go to the kitchen and prepare the regina biscuits (not to be confused with the reginelle covered in sesame with a similar dough). Before we roll up our sleeves, as always I remind you that if you want to stay updated on all my recipes you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here) and that here you’ll also find many recipes for delicious autumn desserts, autumn risottos: many seasonal recipes and many quick autumn recipes.
Take a look:
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (00)
- 9 tbsp lard (about 125 g)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (about 100 g)
- 1 egg (medium)
- 2 tsp baker's ammonia (ammonium carbonate) (about 7 g (one Italian sachet))
- 1 packet vanillin (vanilla powder)
- to taste lemon zest
- 1/3 cup milk (about 100 ml)
- 2.5 cups powdered (confectioners') sugar (best if pure and without added starch)
- 1 lemon (juice and zest)
- 4 tsp water
Tools
- Bowl
- Baking sheets
- Oven
Preparation
Now you will need to make the lemon glaze, which can be a bit tricky so pay attention.
In a bowl, put the powdered sugar, the lemon zest and lemon juice; whisk very well and try to dissolve the sugar. Naturally lumps will form and you will need to add one or two teaspoons of water. Work with the whisk until you obtain a dense and glossy mixture in which you will dip the biscuits. The difficulty is adding the right amount of water. Test by dipping a biscuit: if the glaze struggles to cover it, add another few drops of water (drops, not teaspoons). But if it becomes too runny and slides off the biscuit, add teaspoons of powdered sugar.
Dip the cookies into the glaze, coat them well and allow the excess glaze to drip off before placing them
on a wire rack.
Wait for the sugar to crystallize; it will take about 30 minutes. Once ready, store the dry biscuits in a tin and enjoy them whenever you like — any time of day is perfect!
Notes and tips
My biscuits are finished with a uniform glaze because they are glazed one by one. Commercial ones, being harder and more compact, are dipped into glaze all together in large quantities, stirred and then left to dry; for this reason the glaze does not spread evenly and the biscuits are often broken.
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