The Sweet Circle of Tradition

Dear readers, today I would like to bring you to my home country, specifically my home region, with one of my favourite Italian holiday desserts—Scarcelle.

The Scarcella (singular) is a beloved sweet, believed to have ancient roots, tied to both religious and agricultural traditions. I would describe it as kind of like a cookie, usually made around Easter time, and shared among loved ones or gifted to friends.

Every year, I eat dozens of them.

Scarcelle can be found in other parts of Italy apart from Apulia, and their popularity is due to the fact that their nature is quite simple. Towns or families might have their own variation of the recipe, but the core of this mouth-watering dessert remains the same. A sweet, egg-based dough shaped into a ring or twist, representing the cycle of life and resurrection. Its classic shape, in fact, also gives it its name: Scarcella, as in ‘ciambella’.

In English, ‘doughnut’.

Nowadays, my mama and I have fun preparing all sorts of forms, like bunnies, baskets, hearts, and so on, unleashing completely our creativity. The cookies also usually have a hard-boiled egg baked into the dough, caged by two criss-crossed strips, which is a nod to the symbolism of new life and rebirth, typical of the Holy Week.

I don’t know how else to describe it if not as a truly comforting sweet. At least, for me.

Here is my lovely mama’s recipe, and I hope you’ll love them as much as I do.

You’ll need:

500 g of all-purpose Flour
150 g of Sugar
125 g of Softened Butter (Room Temperature)
2 eggs
1 dose of Vanillin (2 teaspoons)
1 dose of Baking Powder (2 teaspoons)
40/50 ml of Milk (It depends on how much you want)
Hard-boiled Eggs
Sprinkles
Cookie Cutters

Instructions:

Mix everything in a single bowl, starting with the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
Add the eggs (one at a time), vanillin, and butter.
Mix steadily and then add milk slowly.
Knead to form a smooth dough.
Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
Take portions of dough and either roll them to form circles or roll them out, giving them your preferred form with your cookie cutters. Like bunnies, or even braids.
In the centre of each shaped dough place a hard-boiled egg, which you cage with two criss-crossed strips of dough.
Brush with a little bit of milk and egg and decorate with sprinkles as desired.
Place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F) and bake the cookies for about 20 minutes, or until the edges start to turn slightly golden.
Let the biscuits cool completely.
You can now enjoy your Scarcelle. For storing them, I strongly recommend keeping them in an airtight container, away from any source of heat, or also directly in the fridge.

My mum says that people have their own way of making them; therefore, you can find various recipes online, with even sugar icing and many other shapes, but this is my family’s one. I’m very fond of them, and I’ve eaten hundreds of Scarcelle, many of them very different from the traditional ones, so feel free to make them however you want and to even decorate them to your heart’s desire.

Even for this recipe, I do not know how many cookies can come out from it—my mother says a ton—so eat as many as you like and have a wonderful spring!

Up, my mama Easter Scarcelle last year

Sources:

Cos’è la Scarcella?

Che cosa sono le scarcelle, il dolce pasquale pugliese

My family’s expertise

My mama’s family recipe book