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The dish
What sise delle monache are
Guardiagrele’s three-peaked pastry.
Sise delle monache are small sponge pastries shaped like three little domes side by side, filled with custard and covered in icing sugar. They are the most famous sweet of Guardiagrele, the stone village at the foot of the Majella.
They are still made by hand, one by one, in the village pastry shops: the best known is the Lullo family’s, in the old town, which has made them for generations.
What you need
Ingredients
Makes about 10 pastries.
For the sponge
- 6 eggs
- 180 g sugar
- 180 g plain flour
- Grated zest of one lemon
For the custard
- 500 ml milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 120 g sugar
- 40 g flour or cornflour
- Zest of one lemon
To finish
- Plenty of icing sugar
Step by step
Method
- Make the custard: heat the milk with the lemon zest; whisk the yolks with the sugar and flour, pour in the milk and return to the heat, stirring until thick. Cover with film and let cool.
- Whisk the eggs with the sugar for at least 15 minutes, until pale, thick and holding a trail.
- Fold in the sifted flour and lemon zest a little at a time.
- With a piping bag, pipe groups of three tall round domes side by side, joined at the base, on a lined tray.
- Bake at 180 °C for 12–15 minutes, until just golden. Let them cool.
- Sandwich two bases with custard, or fill from below with the piping bag, and dust generously with icing sugar.
From our home kitchen
Tips
- Do not open the oven in the first 10 minutes, or the sponge will sink.
- Fill the sise shortly before serving: the custard softens them.
- They keep in the fridge for one day.
Note: this is a home version; the recipe of Guardiagrele’s pastry shops remains a family secret.
Gallery
Photos
Tap a photo to enlarge it.
Photo 1: sise delle monache from Guardiagrele; photo 2: a single sisa della monaca. Credits: Freegiampi (CC BY-SA 3.0); Marica Massaro (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons, resized; the menu icon is also made from photo 1.
Tradition
History and trivia
According to tradition, the pastry was born in the Poor Clares’ convent in Guardiagrele, and the recipe then passed to the village families who supplied the convent. The Lullo pastry shop has made it since the late 19th century.
There are three theories about the name: a tribute to Saint Agatha, protector of women; the nuns’ habit of hiding their breasts with a padded cloth; or the three peaks visible from the village, the Gran Sasso, the Majella and the Sirente.
Did you know? a sweet with a similar name, «tette delle monache», is also made in other southern regions, but with a different shape and recipe.