Abruzzo mostaccioli

Mostaccioli take their name from must, that is cooked must, the grape juice reduced over the fire that in Abruzzo was used instead of sugar. With honey, toasted almonds and a little cocoa, it makes a dark, fragrant dough.

They are cut into diamonds or rectangles and, once baked, are often coated in dark chocolate. In Scanno the home recipe adds candied citron.

For the dough

• 500 g plain flour
• 200 g toasted almonds, roughly chopped
• 200 g honey
• 100 ml cooked must (or vino cotto)
• 100 g sugar
• 30 g unsweetened cocoa
• 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of ground cloves
• Grated zest of one orange
• 1 sachet baker’s ammonia (or baking powder)
• Optional: 50 g diced candied citron

For the coating

• 300 g dark chocolate

1. Warm the honey with the cooked must, sugar and oil, without boiling, until the sugar dissolves.
2. In a bowl mix the flour with the cocoa, spices, orange zest, ammonia and almonds (and the citron, if using).
3. Pour the still-warm honey mixture over the flour and knead into a firm, smooth dough.
4. Roll the dough out 1 cm thick and cut into diamonds about 5 cm long.
5. Bake on a lined tray at 180 °C for 15–18 minutes; let cool.
6. Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, dip or brush the mostaccioli and let them dry on a rack.

• Baker’s ammonia makes the biscuits crumbly: its smell disappears completely during baking.
• If you cannot find cooked must, use vino cotto or a little more honey.
• Keep them in a tin: they last up to a month.

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Mostaccioli are among Italy’s oldest sweets: the Romans already made sweet breads with must. In Abruzzo the recipe survived in country homes, where cooked must and honey were the everyday sweeteners.

Cocoa and chocolate came later, once they became easy to find: today chocolate mostaccioli are the Christmas biscuit of many families around L’Aquila.