Calabria / Cosenza
Mostaccioli Calabresi
Hard Italian honey and spice cookies
These are hard honey and spice cookies, cut into shapes and baked dry so they keep for weeks.
Tested and written by Erika A. Cochran
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Prep
40 minutes, plus resting
Cook
20 minutes
Serves
About 20
Difficulty
Moderate
Region
Calabria
What you’ll need
Ingredients
Written for About 20.
Showing quantities at 1× the original recipe.
- 4 cups plain flour
- ⅞ cup honey
- ½ cup warm water
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- Zest of 1 orange
- Almonds, to decorate (optional)
At the stove
Instructions
Warm the honey with the water until fluid, then let it cool slightly.
Work it into the flour with the spices and zest to make a stiff dough.
Rest the dough, wrapped, for 2 hours.
Roll to ⅓ inch and cut shapes by hand — traditional figures, or simple rounds.
Press an almond into each if you like, and bake at 340°F for 18–20 minutes.
Cool completely. They firm up considerably as they cool.
Recipe notes
Mostaccioli are meant to be hard — they soften slightly after a few days in a tin.
Shapes are regional and often symbolic; the dough is the constant.
Context
Honey-and-flour biscuits under the name mostaccioli are documented in Calabria, particularly around Soriano Calabro, and are traditionally hand-shaped for festivals.
Sources: Editorial adaptation of documented Calabrian baking traditions, Casa Magnelli Kitchen
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