So there has been something of a cooking drought in the Graphic Foodie kitchen. Holidays, fitting my parents new kitchen, meeting friends and yadda, yadda life. Hopefully, normal service will now resume.
I decided to bake these tarallini crackers for my dad's birthday. Taralli are a southern Italian snack, kinda like a pretzel, that are commonly served up in bars when you order a drink. You can get them in many flavours but most common are those with fennel, rosemary or poppy seeds. Tarallini are just smaller versions of taralli and I prefer them. They are really crispy and the fact that they are boiled before baking, just like bagels, gives them a really unique texture. Brilliant scattered round in little bowls if you are having a party or BBQ.
I decided to halve the dough and flavour one batch with fennel and the other with chili flakes but you can just do one flavour. Be sure to double the fennel or chili if you do and pop it in with the flour at the first stage.
Ingredients
1kg White Type 00 flour
180ml olive oil (A light olive oil is best. You can use extra virgin but it will give you a stronger taste.)
1 and a half teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons fennel seeds and 1 and a half teaspoons of dried chilli flakes (more or less depending on your taste bud sensitivity)
About 100 - 120ml White wine *but use more if you need to to get the dough consistency right*
Mix the olive oil, salt and flour in a big bowl. Add the white wine gradually until you get a nice solid dough that is smooth and plyable and will not stick. Don't worry if you don't use all of it, you can swig it as you form the rings!
Form into a nice smooth round ball and halve. To one batch add the fennel and to the other add the chilli. Knead each ball for about 10 minutes, making sure the seeds and flakes are well distributed through the dough. (Yes this dough is an excellent moisturiser for your hands with the oil content - bonus!)
Take a small amount in your hands, a ball about 2 cm in diameter, then roll into a sausage. Curl around and press the ends together. I loop them round my fingers but I do have diddy hands. You can make them bigger into taralli with a larger hole in the middle if you wish. You should end up with about 95 tarallini in total, obviously less for the taralli.
Pop the tarallini into boiling water about 10 at a time until they float to the surface. Drain onto some kitchen paper (quickly or they'll stick) then pop on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 30-40 minutes until they are golden but not too brown.
Let them go cold, pour yourself a lovely glass of vino and enjoy your efforts. These will keep in a sealed container for weeks but they are really moorish!
Yummy! They look splendid and I love the fact that Fennel is an ingredient! If i was in brighton, I'd be right over :)
ReplyDeleteThese look brilliant. In my opinion there are very very few good quality shop bought snacks (except the posh crisps now available). I will definitely be trying these.
ReplyDeleteDo they work adding some cheese? Also poppy seeds would be good?
Hi Bethany... fennel is one of may favourites...mmmm
ReplyDeleteAmple Cook - poppy seeds are very common in these. Cheese not so much but I bet some grated Parmesan would give an amazing flavour and the tarailli would still be crunchy. Yes, I may give that one a punt - thanks!
Now this is excellent - never heard of these before. They look so good. I'll add these to my repetoire for my annual xmas eve blowout buffet - but in the meantime, I've got to have a go at making these.
ReplyDeletethese look blimmin'wonderful! I've learnt a lot about Southern Italian food recently, but never come across these gorgeous little mamas before. Must try.
ReplyDeleteHi Dan & Gastrogeek... yes, I do like to take my readers to the deepest, darkest, peasant areas of Italy! It's a tasty place.
ReplyDeleteI hope to do a good post when I go back in a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, my uncle who reared the meat & did all the curing for the family passed away last year. Would have loved to share his knowledge and endless passion for good food. He (and his infamous salumi) are missed by a LOT of people!
Great recipe, but I think that the dough need more liquid (be it wine or water).With just 120ml of wine (and no water) I ended up with crumbles!
ReplyDeleteHi Wzorin,
ReplyDeleteHmmm that's an odd one. Did you use Type 00 flour? Maybe because it is finer it absorbs better. To be honest the 180ml of olive oil should have bound most of it with the wine to get the right consistency. No harm adding more wine though.
When I do these next I shall really measure things out to tripe check but you really don't need too much wine normally.
Cheers for the heads up!
Hello,
ReplyDeleteYeah, i did use Type 00 flour.Luckily, I have some experience with making bread dough so I knew that I have to add more liquid :).But to be honest it had to be at least twice as much wine than in your recipe.Gotta make another batch soon :)!
Cool, were they ok with more liquid? Hope so!
ReplyDeleteI do get carried away adding an extra slosh of this and a pinch of that but will go through and update if I see any discrepancies.
Otherwise everyone, just add more wine until you get the dough looking like the pics above!