Italian Abruzzese Honey Pastry | Cicerchiata Abruzzese

Sep 29

11 min read

Cicerchiata Abruzzese (Italian Abruzzese Honey Pastry)

Cicerchiata is the Carnival sweet of Abruzzo: tiny pieces of egg dough, fried until golden, folded into warm honey and pressed into a crown while everything is still pliable. It is broken into clusters with the fingers, never sliced, and done well it stays crisp for days, glossy, golden and full of orange.

Yield: 10 to 12 servings. Prep: 45 minutes. Rest: 30 minutes. Fry and coat: 30 minutes. Setting: 1 hour. Difficulty: intermediate. Region: Abruzzo.

The Story

Cicerchiata belongs to a family of fried dough and honey sweets that runs the length of the peninsula: struffoli in Naples, pignolata in Sicily and Calabria, cicerchiata across Abruzzo, Molise, the Marche and Umbria. They descend from the same very old idea, small pieces of dough cooked in fat and bound with honey, the only sweetener available around the Mediterranean before cane sugar arrived, and for centuries the sweetness of every festival table. What separates them is shape and calendar. Struffoli are piled into a cone for Christmas. Cicerchiata is built as a flat crown for Carnival.

The name comes from the cicerchia, Lathyrus sativus, a small angular grass pea farmed for centuries on the thin soils of the Abruzzese and Umbrian hills because it survives drought where little else grows. It fed families through bad years, nearly vanished from tables during the twentieth century, and has been brought back by small growers. The dessert borrowed the name from the resemblance: the golden spheres lifted from the fryer look like a handful of the dried legume, and the cook is meant to cut them to that size.

Carnival fixed the recipe in the calendar. The days before Lent were the last chance to spend eggs, lard and honey before forty days of abstinence, so the sweets of the season are almost all fried and almost all rich. In Abruzzo the cicerchiata was made communally, several women rolling and cutting at one table, because cutting hundreds of pieces is slow work for one pair of hands. The finished crown stood on the table through the whole festivity, and children were sent to pick at it all afternoon. Decoration changed by town: coloured sprinkles in some, candied peel in others, and around Sulmona the sugar coated almonds called confetti, left whole or crushed over the honey.

It is also a dish of the household rather than the pastry shop. Families kept their own proportions, and arguments about the right amount of orange zest, or whether a spoon of anise liqueur belongs in the dough, still divide cousins. Ask ten grandmothers in the province of Chieti and you will hear ten versions, all of them certain. What they agree on is the honey: wildflower or acacia, warmed with care, never scorched and never skimped, because the honey is not a coating but the structure that holds the crown together.

Ingredients

For the dough

All purpose flour, 2 cups (250 g), plus more for dusting
Large eggs, 3
Granulated sugar, 1 tbsp (12 g)
Unsalted butter, melted, 2 tbsp (30 g)
Anise liqueur or dry white wine, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Orange zest, finely grated, from 1 orange
Lemon zest, finely grated, from 1 lemon
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Vanilla extract, 1 tsp (5 ml), optional but traditional in many homes
Neutral oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml), for greasing the bowl and your palms

For frying

Sunflower or peanut oil, 6 cups (1.4 L), fresh and neutral in flavor
Paper towels, for the rack, to catch any surface oil

For the honey coating

Wildflower or acacia honey, 1 1/4 cups (420 g), mild in flavor because it will be cooked
Toasted almonds, chopped, 1/2 cup (70 g)
Candied orange peel, diced, 1/4 cup (40 g)
Toasted hazelnuts, chopped, 1/4 cup (35 g), optional
Ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp (0.5 g), optional

For finishing

Colored sprinkles or sugar coated almonds, 2 tbsp (25 g)
Cold water, in a bowl, for wetting the board and your hands
Candied orange strips, a few, for the center of the crown
Sulmona confetti, crushed, 2 tbsp (25 g), as an alternative to sprinkles

Preparation

Mix and knead the dough

Whisk the eggs, sugar, melted butter, liqueur, both zests and the salt in a large bowl. Add the flour in two additions and stir into a shaggy mass. Turn it onto a floured board and knead for 6 to 8 minutes until smooth and elastic, as firm as fresh pasta dough. If it sticks, add flour by the tablespoon. If it tears, dampen your hands and keep kneading.

Rest the dough

Wrap the dough in plastic and rest it at room temperature for 30 minutes. The gluten relaxes and the rolling that follows stops fighting you. Meanwhile set a rack over a tray for the fried pieces and pour the oil into a deep heavy pot, no more than half full.

Roll the ropes

Divide the dough into 6 pieces and keep the rest covered. Roll each piece under your palms into a rope about 1/3 inch (8 mm) thick, dusting with flour only where it sticks. Even ropes give even pieces, and even pieces finish frying at the same moment.

Cut the pieces

Cut each rope into pieces about 1/3 inch (8 mm) long, the size of a chickpea. Toss them in a coarse sieve with a spoonful of flour to keep them apart, then shake off the excess. Loose flour burns in the oil and clouds it, so use very little. Work over a tray so the extra flour is easy to gather and discard.

Fry in small batches

Heat the oil to 350°F (175°C). Fry one small handful at a time for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring gently, until the pieces puff and turn deep gold. Lift them with a spider onto the rack and let the oil recover before the next batch. Expect about 8 batches, each one taking a little longer than you think. Cool them completely, because warm pieces steam and weep against the honey.

Warm the honey

Pour the honey into a wide heavy saucepan and warm it over medium low heat, stirring. It foams at first. Cook until a spoon lifted from the pot lets the honey fall in a fine thread that holds for a moment before it breaks, about 235°F (113°C), which takes 5 to 7 minutes. Stop there and take the pan off the heat at once.

Fold the fried dough into the honey

Off the heat, tip in the fried pieces, the almonds and the candied peel. Fold with a wet wooden spoon for about 30 seconds, turning the mass over rather than stirring it, until every piece shines and no dry patches remain. Work without pausing: the honey is plastic now and stiffens as it cools.

Shape the crown while warm

Wet a large plate or marble board with cold water and leave it dripping. Scrape the mass onto it. With wet hands, press it into a crown about 9 inches (23 cm) across with a 3 inch (8 cm) hole in the middle, pushing gently rather than packing. You have roughly 8 to 10 minutes before the honey sets.

Decorate and set

Scatter the sprinkles or sugar coated almonds over the crown while the surface is still tacky and press them in lightly. Leave it uncovered at room temperature for 1 hour until firm. Slide a spatula under it and lift it onto the serving platter. The film of water lets it release cleanly. If a few pieces come loose while lifting, press them back into place with a wet fingertip.

Plating

Serve the crown whole on a wide flat platter or a cake stand, at room temperature, in the middle of the table. Nobody slices it. Guests break off clusters with their fingers, which is the point of the dish and the reason it needs no plates or forks. If the occasion needs portions, cut through with a wet sharp knife into pieces of about 2 ounces (55 g).

Wipe stray honey from the rim of the platter so the presentation stays clean. Set a few strips of candied orange in the hole of the crown for colour. Offer small paper napkins and a bowl of warm water with lemon slices for sticky fingers. Keep the platter away from steam, drafts and the refrigerator, since both make the honey weep.

Professional Technique

A cicerchiata has no batter, no dough binding the pieces and no mold. Nothing holds hundreds of fried pellets together except honey, so the honey is not a topping but the structure, and how far it is cooked decides everything. Honey is about 17 percent water. Heat drives that water off and the viscosity climbs steeply with every few degrees. Raw honey poured over the pieces is too loose to bond them and simply drains to the bottom of the bowl, leaving the top pieces dry and the bottom ones swimming.

The working point is just past the thread. Lift a spoon from the pot: when the honey stops falling in beads and runs as a fine thread that holds a second before breaking, it has reached roughly 235°F (113°C). Enough water is gone for the honey to grip, yet it is still plastic, meaning it can be shaped and will flow under light pressure. Push it to 250°F (120°C) and it turns glassy. Cooled, it becomes one hard block that must be cracked with a knife, and it tastes of bitter caramel rather than blossom.

The pieces go in off the heat, because a hot pan keeps driving water out and overshoots the thread within seconds. The crown is shaped on a wet surface while the honey is still plastic, in the first 8 to 10 minutes. The film of water stops the honey bonding to the board, and as the honey cools it sets at each point of contact, so the ring holds together yet breaks into clusters under the fingers, exactly as a good cicerchiata should.

Texture and Moisture Control

Each fried piece should be a hollow puff with a thin crisp shell. That comes from oil at 350°F (175°C) and a firm, well rested dough: the eggs set the outside instantly and trapped steam inflates the interior. Oil at 325°F (165°C) or lower lets the dough soak up fat and turn heavy and greasy. Oil much above 375°F (190°C) colours the shell before the inside has dried, and the pieces collapse into dense, doughy pellets. Frying in small batches protects the temperature, and a rest of two minutes between batches lets the oil come back to heat. Drain on a rack, not on paper towels stacked flat, so steam escapes and the shell stays dry.

Moisture is the enemy of everything after the fryer. Honey is hygroscopic, meaning it pulls water out of the air, so on a humid day the crown slowly softens and turns tacky. Fully cooled pieces, a dry kitchen and a dry storage container keep it crisp. Never refrigerate it: cold air condenses moisture on the surface and the honey weeps. Kept dry at room temperature, the crown holds its crunch for 5 to 7 days, and the flavour of the citrus zest deepens with time.

Professional Mise en Place

The frying can be done ahead. The honey stage cannot, because it takes about 15 minutes from the pan to the finished crown and nothing can wait. Everything else is therefore ready before the honey touches the stove, and one person handles the whole sequence without leaving the counter.

Equipment and tools

Deep heavy pot, spider or slotted spoon, and a frying thermometer
Wide heavy saucepan for the honey, with a candy thermometer
Large plate or marble board, and a bowl of cold water
Wooden spoon reserved for the honey, and a metal spatula for lifting the crown

Prepared ahead

Dough made and rested, up to 1 day ahead in the refrigerator
Pieces fried and fully cooled, up to 2 days ahead in a dry container
Almonds toasted and chopped, peel diced, sprinkles measured
Oil strained if reused, and the rack and tray already in place

Service setup

Board wetted only when the honey reaches thread
Serving platter within reach of the board
Paper napkins and warm lemon water at the table
Honey pan soaking in hot water right after use, since set honey is hard to clean

Chef Tips

Use a thermometer for both the oil and the honey. The window between a crown that holds and one that turns to glass is about 15°F (8°C), which is too narrow for guessing by eye.

Choose a mild honey, acacia or wildflower. Chestnut and eucalyptus are too bitter once they are cooked past the thread, and the bitterness lands on top of the fried flavour.

Fry the pieces the day before if you like. Cold, dry pieces take the honey better than warm ones, and the day of the assembly stays calm. Store them in a dry container with a folded paper towel to absorb any trace of moisture.

If the honey stiffens before you finish shaping, return the whole mass to very low heat for 20 seconds, folding constantly. Do not add water, which weakens the bond. Work with a helper if you are making a large crown: one person folds while the other wets the board and holds the platter ready.

Common Mistakes

Overcooking the honey. Past 250°F (120°C) the honey turns glassy and the crown sets into one brittle block. Take the pan off the heat the moment the thread forms, and never leave it unattended, since honey cooks fast.

Undercooking the honey. Below the thread the honey is too fluid to bond, and the crown slumps and stays sticky for hours instead of setting. A thermometer or the thread test removes the guessing.

Cutting the pieces too large. Anything bigger than a chickpea stays doughy inside while the outside colours, and the crown loses its lightness.

Shaping on a dry board. Honey grips a dry surface and cannot be released without tearing the crown. A dripping wet board or plate solves it.

Fanning the batches. Frying too many pieces at once drops the oil temperature and the pieces come out greasy. Fry small handfuls and let the oil recover.

Refrigerating the finished crown. Cold and condensation make the honey weep and the pieces go soft. Keep it dry at room temperature, and if the weather is humid, serve it within a day.

Wine Pairing

Moscato d'Asti DOCG: The standard bottle for fried Carnival sweets across Italy. Its gentle sparkle scrubs the fried surface and the honey film from the palate between handfuls, and at around 5.5 percent alcohol it never weighs on a dessert that is already very sweet. The peach and orange blossom aromas land directly on the citrus zest in the dough.

Ramandolo DOCG: Made in the hills of north eastern Friuli from Verduzzo left to dry on the vine, it is one of the few Italian sweet whites with real tannin from skin contact. That grip gives the wine something to push against the honey. Its own apricot and honeyed character runs alongside the coating without competing.

Colli Orientali del Friuli Picolit DOCG: A scarce wine from a variety that sets few berries per bunch, with acacia, candied citron and light apricot sweetness. It lacks the heavy dried fruit weight of a passito, which suits a dessert meant to be airy. Serve it cold in small glasses as the refined option beside a rustic sweet, and pour sparingly, because it is a wine to sip slowly.

Romagna Albana DOCG: In its sweet late harvest bottlings Albana offers ripe apricot, yellow peach and a bitter almond edge on the finish, with a skin derived firmness most sweet whites lack. That almond note echoes the toasted almonds folded into the honey, and the acidity is bright enough to clear the fat left by the frying, so each new cluster tastes as fresh as the first, even after a long lunch.

Storage & Reheating

Keep the finished crown uncovered or loosely tented with baking paper at cool room temperature, in a dry place, for 5 to 7 days. Store it in an airtight tin only once the honey is fully set, with a sheet of baking paper under and over it. Do not refrigerate: humidity softens the pieces and the honey weeps. A silica packet or a folded paper towel in the tin helps in summer.

It does not freeze well, because thawing releases moisture into the honey. The unglazed fried pieces, however, keep in a dry sealed container for 2 days. Never reheat the finished crown. If it turns tacky in humid weather, leave it for 20 minutes in a 200°F (95°C) oven with the door ajar, then cool it again on a rack before returning it to the tin.