David, I have a question which has nothing to do with this post. I’m just finishing reading The Sweet Life in Paris…I’m home with Covid and have really enjoyed it, and have laughed out loud a lot! My question is…have things changed in Paris re smoking, coffee, Romanian prison grocery stores, line cutting etc? Just wondering! I’ve been to Paris probably five times but not recently. Thank you!
A hundred years ago, someone left a bag of taralli as a welcome gift at a vacation home we rented in Italy. These are like Fritos in the US: I don't dare open the bag, because I can't stop at one.
And now here you are telling us how to make them, and better. Another Lebovitz rainy-day project. My neighbors love you!
I have to make these! Cheeze Its & cheddar goldfish are my weakness but I like Taralle too. Have you made pinodicerbo Nonna’s Roccoco Almond cookies? A sweet hard, crunchy cookie on IG.
I have lost the 'recipe' you had for a drink made from peach leaves! Could you direct me to the article you wrote it in or post it again? Wouldn't these taralli be wonderful with them?! Thank you
Years ago there was a restaurant in Provincetown, Franco's by the Sea, that made a red wine and black pepper version of these. The recipe was published in Gourmet (shows you how long ago this was), and they were delicious. They were only baked, and not boiled first, which could have been a publication modification. Not crispy, but they had a nice, crumbly texture. I'm sure I have the recipe somewhere.
The Epicurious website (which was Gourmet and Bon Appétit seems to have lost or deleted a bunch of recipes, which is a shame because Gourmet had a really amazing test kitchen and was a trove of great recipes. Hopefully you saved it!
I figured out why I couldn’t find the recipe. They are called Biscotti di Vino, instead of Tarelli. I found a recipe on Food52 which is similar to the Gourmet one, but is for double the volume and without pepper. The recipe I have calls for 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper, 1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder, 1/2 cup dry red wine, 1/2 cup vegetable oil. All the rest is the same as on Food52; the yield was 12 biscotti.
I love, love taralli. The traditional ones (with fennel) were popular growing up in an Italian neighborhood in Rhode Island. I used to manage an AG Ferrari store in the Bay Area and we imported a few really good brands. A few years ago I started making them as holiday gifts and they are a big hit. I can’t make them as often because I tend to eat them all : )
Thank you for this. Another David Lebovitz cheese tidbit for aperitivi! I will be making these this week for sure, adding to my rotation of Comte wafers and Olive Crisps from My Paris Kitchen.
One thing that confuses me from recipe writers, okay there are more than one thing. You're American but live in France, you say to preheat the oven to 190°C but you don't indicate if that is bake or roast or if I should be using a fan oven (convection) or not. Do you have a consistent approach to recipes when it comes to oven settings? Is your standard regular or convection? Is roast only for meats and bake is for breads and pastries?
I do greatly appreciate recipes that are in grams, makes scaling much easier as well as uses many fewer utensils. Thank you for that.
My ovens have all sorts of different settings I just use the standard ones, not the grill/broil or other specialty settings. Neither of mine has a bake or roast setting - not sure what the difference would be. If you have both, what is it?
Glass pie dishes bake differently than metal ones. Medium heat on an electric stove would be different than if someone is using a gas stove. If you wrote a recipe for every situation it might be overwhelming for readers to read such a long recipe. It already adds *a lot* to writing recipes when you write in two different systems of measurement.
I have Wolf (Sub-Zero) ovens whose roots are British. The bake mode uses a hidden (underneath) bake element and the broiler element to heat the oven, convection bake uses the two convection elements (sides) and the bake element along with two fans to circulate the heat. Convection roast uses the two fans, convection elements and broiler element to intensify the convective and radiant heating. I attended pâtisserie courses at the old Cordon Bleu on Leon Delhomme and where we bake in true convection ovens and most of the recipes that I have retained are based on a convection bake.
I have been making pizza for a while but was quite frustrated that the dough always seeming under cooked while the topping was cooked to crap. It took me too long to figure out that I should be using bake instead of my standard convection bake. Bake mode provides most of the heat from the bottom while convection applies heat to the top as well.
I appreciate your dilemma with overly wordy recipes and the willingness of home cooks to wade through all of that, especially with a one-off recipe that you graciously include in your newsletter. However, I hope that you include a "Basics" chapter like you did in The Perfect Scoop in all of your books for those of us anal enough to worry about the details. I embarrassingly admit to only owning that one book of yours at this point but will work to correct that oversight.
Thanks for all your efforts and willingness to share.
My convection oven is installed in the US. I find the “convection” setting causes baked goods to brown more/more quickly than when I use the “conventional bake” setting. Generally okay for baking crusty bread - but I use conventional setting for pretty much all other baked goods. For what it’s worth - I use those convection settings for roasting-it seems to me I get better browning….
AND. A big caveat - I’m not much of a baker, I am nothing of a recipe tester and proofer and I am not, nor do I expect ever to be, a writer of cookbooks.
I’ve now made these twice - they seem to disappear quickly! Really tasty and fun to make. As usual, well explained instructions. Thanks David!!
I read David’s recipe - have found one can’t go wrong making his well tested and delicious items. Usually over and over like the gâteau marbré!
But didn’t think I’d go to all the work, until tasting some Taralli in Dijon! I’m on it when I return home.
Thanks for sharing, testing, and all the helpful tips!!
Too funny. I, too, saw "characterful" used recently and looked it up because I didn't think it was a real word.
David, I have a question which has nothing to do with this post. I’m just finishing reading The Sweet Life in Paris…I’m home with Covid and have really enjoyed it, and have laughed out loud a lot! My question is…have things changed in Paris re smoking, coffee, Romanian prison grocery stores, line cutting etc? Just wondering! I’ve been to Paris probably five times but not recently. Thank you!
Do you think you could substitute almond flour for the all purpose flour?
I don't think so since almond flour doesn't have gluten so the dough might not hold together.
I laughed at the note about "fortitude"! David, you're a hoot!
How similar are the crackers in texture to bagels? Are they chewy at all since they take a dip in water?
A hundred years ago, someone left a bag of taralli as a welcome gift at a vacation home we rented in Italy. These are like Fritos in the US: I don't dare open the bag, because I can't stop at one.
And now here you are telling us how to make them, and better. Another Lebovitz rainy-day project. My neighbors love you!
I have to make these! Cheeze Its & cheddar goldfish are my weakness but I like Taralle too. Have you made pinodicerbo Nonna’s Roccoco Almond cookies? A sweet hard, crunchy cookie on IG.
I have lost the 'recipe' you had for a drink made from peach leaves! Could you direct me to the article you wrote it in or post it again? Wouldn't these taralli be wonderful with them?! Thank you
That recipe is here. I just made a batch!
https://www.davidlebovitz.com/vin-de-peche-pe/
Years ago there was a restaurant in Provincetown, Franco's by the Sea, that made a red wine and black pepper version of these. The recipe was published in Gourmet (shows you how long ago this was), and they were delicious. They were only baked, and not boiled first, which could have been a publication modification. Not crispy, but they had a nice, crumbly texture. I'm sure I have the recipe somewhere.
The Epicurious website (which was Gourmet and Bon Appétit seems to have lost or deleted a bunch of recipes, which is a shame because Gourmet had a really amazing test kitchen and was a trove of great recipes. Hopefully you saved it!
I figured out why I couldn’t find the recipe. They are called Biscotti di Vino, instead of Tarelli. I found a recipe on Food52 which is similar to the Gourmet one, but is for double the volume and without pepper. The recipe I have calls for 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper, 1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder, 1/2 cup dry red wine, 1/2 cup vegetable oil. All the rest is the same as on Food52; the yield was 12 biscotti.
HELL YES.
I love, love taralli. The traditional ones (with fennel) were popular growing up in an Italian neighborhood in Rhode Island. I used to manage an AG Ferrari store in the Bay Area and we imported a few really good brands. A few years ago I started making them as holiday gifts and they are a big hit. I can’t make them as often because I tend to eat them all : )
I can't wait to try these. Cheese is exactly what these lovely-but-generally-boring crackers need!
Thank you for this. Another David Lebovitz cheese tidbit for aperitivi! I will be making these this week for sure, adding to my rotation of Comte wafers and Olive Crisps from My Paris Kitchen.
David, do you have a cocktail to recommend with these?
Would drink wine (we had rosé) but an Americano would be terrific. There's a recipe here: https://www.foodrepublic.com/2015/03/11/the-curious-evolution-of-the-americano/
I'll try it! I love Negronis, but the alcohol level is sometimes more than I want. We just bought some lovely interesting vermouths, too.
One thing that confuses me from recipe writers, okay there are more than one thing. You're American but live in France, you say to preheat the oven to 190°C but you don't indicate if that is bake or roast or if I should be using a fan oven (convection) or not. Do you have a consistent approach to recipes when it comes to oven settings? Is your standard regular or convection? Is roast only for meats and bake is for breads and pastries?
I do greatly appreciate recipes that are in grams, makes scaling much easier as well as uses many fewer utensils. Thank you for that.
My ovens have all sorts of different settings I just use the standard ones, not the grill/broil or other specialty settings. Neither of mine has a bake or roast setting - not sure what the difference would be. If you have both, what is it?
Glass pie dishes bake differently than metal ones. Medium heat on an electric stove would be different than if someone is using a gas stove. If you wrote a recipe for every situation it might be overwhelming for readers to read such a long recipe. It already adds *a lot* to writing recipes when you write in two different systems of measurement.
My oven has both convection and regular settings, but I've found the baking time to be the same for both. Home "convection" ovens generally aren't true convection ovens - most just have a fan which doesn't really make a big difference: https://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/healthy-living/convection-oven-vs-regular-oven/
I have Wolf (Sub-Zero) ovens whose roots are British. The bake mode uses a hidden (underneath) bake element and the broiler element to heat the oven, convection bake uses the two convection elements (sides) and the bake element along with two fans to circulate the heat. Convection roast uses the two fans, convection elements and broiler element to intensify the convective and radiant heating. I attended pâtisserie courses at the old Cordon Bleu on Leon Delhomme and where we bake in true convection ovens and most of the recipes that I have retained are based on a convection bake.
I have been making pizza for a while but was quite frustrated that the dough always seeming under cooked while the topping was cooked to crap. It took me too long to figure out that I should be using bake instead of my standard convection bake. Bake mode provides most of the heat from the bottom while convection applies heat to the top as well.
I appreciate your dilemma with overly wordy recipes and the willingness of home cooks to wade through all of that, especially with a one-off recipe that you graciously include in your newsletter. However, I hope that you include a "Basics" chapter like you did in The Perfect Scoop in all of your books for those of us anal enough to worry about the details. I embarrassingly admit to only owning that one book of yours at this point but will work to correct that oversight.
Thanks for all your efforts and willingness to share.
My convection oven is installed in the US. I find the “convection” setting causes baked goods to brown more/more quickly than when I use the “conventional bake” setting. Generally okay for baking crusty bread - but I use conventional setting for pretty much all other baked goods. For what it’s worth - I use those convection settings for roasting-it seems to me I get better browning….
AND. A big caveat - I’m not much of a baker, I am nothing of a recipe tester and proofer and I am not, nor do I expect ever to be, a writer of cookbooks.