Roccocò
The Neapolitan Christmas ring, hard enough that tradition assigns it a softening liquid by rank — vermouth, marsala, spumante. Whole almonds in a spiced ring, glossed with yolk.
Sugar at 80% of the flour and no fat at all. That is a formula for keeping, not for pleasure on the day, and the tin agrees for a month and a half. The hardness is the design; the biscuit waits for the liquid assigned to it. Tradition dates it to 1320 and a Naples convent — worth knowing before repeating that: Campania’s own official product sheet gives roccocò no date at all.
This style has a home and a history — see Campania in the Atlas for its class, its dunking wine, and its papers.
Documented, not yet sealed. The Tested 3× mark arrives with our own three bakes and their published notes.
Fonti
Ingredienti
Il metodo
Whisk flour, sugar, pisto, cocoa, ammonia and the zests. Add the whole almonds, then the water, and bring together into a firm dough — no eggs, no fat in the dough itself.
Divide into pieces of 65–75 g, roll each into a rope, and close it into a ring about 10 cm across. Brush with beaten yolk.
Bake at 180°C / 355°F for about 20 minutes for the softer counter version. Cool a full hour on a rack.
For the traditional hard ring — the one Neapolitans call spaccadenti, the tooth-splitter — return them to a 150°C / 300°F oven for 15–20 minutes more. That second pass earns them their place beside the vermouth.
Six weeks. Only the Lagaccio outlasts it.