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Passport & Plate - La Befana di Barga

Italy | Saturday, January 25, 2014 | 10 photos

Ingredients
Dough:
1 kg 00 flour (Italian 00 flour is similar to white flour)
600 g sugar
7 eggs (5 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks)
150 g butter

Marzipan:
200 g almonds (toasted and ground)
Orange peel (to taste)
Sugar (to taste)
1 and ½ egg whites
Alkermes liquor (to taste)

 

How to prepare this recipe
Dough:

Combine flour, melted butter, sugar, 5 eggs and 2 egg yolks and mix them together. Knead and flatten the dough. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough (usually shapes of starts, befanas, Christmas tree, hearts).


Marzipan:

Combine grated orange peel, sugar, toasted and ground almonds, egg whites and alkermes liquor and mix them together. Place a spoon of marzipan at the centre of the biscuit, then decorate it with small leaves made out of dough.
Oven cook at 180° until golden colour.

 

The story behind this recipe
The Befana is usually prepared during Epiphany time and it is a typical cookie from the small village of Barga, Tuscany (Italy). Originally it was made on 5th January, in order to be ready for the arrival of Befana on 6th January. For those who do not know her, Befana is an old lady, similar to a witch, who comes on the night between 5th and 6th January to bring sweets and presents to all good children and charcoal to all bad ones. Befana (whose name derives from the term “epiphany”) is a folkloristic tradition typical of certain regions of Italy, especially in Tuscany. This is why Barga has always celebrated this event by making these cookies. Every family, from generation to generation, passes on their own recipe, therefore it is a really important tradition, whom people from Barga are very fond of.
I have been making these biscuits since I was little, together with my aunt and my grandmother. Although we are now in 2014, we continue to make them in order to carry on our traditions and to teach youngsters. Befana is even more important than Santa Claus: in fact, many families only give their presents on Befana’s day.
I am very much affectionate to this recipe and this biscuit because it represents the time spent with my family, our history, our values, our identity.

ps. It is also the most tasteful biscuit ever!