A quintessential Palermo tradition linked to the Feast of Saint Martin, quick to prepare and perfect to enjoy warm with a good glass of new wine!
On November 11th, the day of the celebration, it is a Sicilian custom to eat “biscotti di San Martino”, very dry and hard biscuits, flavored with fennel seeds or anise, and then soaked in Pantelleria must.

This is a very ancient tradition, linked to the rituals of wine-growing farmers, who during the so-called “Summer of Saint Martin” saw the new wine reach maturity, an important source of their economy.

The women would bring freshly baked San Martino biscuits, and everyone would take one and dip it into new wine, muscat wine, or other sweet liqueur wines kept at home for special occasions, in an atmosphere of hope and conviviality.

Ingredients

Do you want to know how they are made?

INGREDIENTS:

500 g all-purpose flour (00 flour)
150 g granulated sugar
100 g lard
30 g fresh yeast
20 g anise seeds
A pinch of salt
Water as needed

Preparation method

METHOD:

Work the flour with the fresh yeast dissolved in lukewarm water, then combine with the sugar, lard, salt, and anise seeds.

Add water until you obtain a dough with the consistency of bread dough. Cut the dough into pieces to create upward spiral shapes about 3 cm in diameter and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Let them rise for at least two hours.

After this time, place the tray in a preheated oven at 200°C. After 10 minutes, remove the biscuits from the oven, lower the temperature to 160°C, and bake them again for 20 minutes. Once baked, leave the biscuits to cool in the switched-off oven so they can finish drying and become perfect for being dipped in must!

Text and photos from the web.