It’s our last night in Alba. Alba has turned out to be an ideal home base for exploring the Langhe wine region. Wine wasn’t invented here, but it feels like wine could have been invented in the Langhe. Baci-di-dama weren’t invented here, either, but we’re going to have some tonight!
If we had one more day to spend in Alba, we’d probably just meander through the cobblestone streets of the old town. The layout has been the same for hundreds of years, so it still has a medieval feel to it. Alba is a great walking town.
It’s been quite a day – a medieval parade through town, pageants, donkey races. We’re hungry, but we’re too wiped out to go out and have a nice dinner. It’s going to be another forage-for-food night.
Will Forage for Food
There are so many places to get food to take away around here. Even with so many choices, I ended up at my favorite place. When I went out foraging last time, I came back with pizza. It was so good, why go someplace else?
Tonight, though, I have my eye on a ham and cheese sandwich on focaccia. I know – a ham and cheese sandwich is nothing to get excited about. But keep in mind that over here, “ham” is not ham as we know it, “cheese” is not cheese as we know it, and the focaccia bread, like most bread over here, probably hasn’t been out of the oven for long.
The sandwich was big enough to feed both of us for dinner, but just as a precaution, I thought that perhaps I should also bring back a little something for dessert.
This place has all kinds of delicious-looking goodies on display. It was impossible for me to decide what to bring back for dessert, so I asked the young lady behind the counter what she would recommend. She didn’t even have to think about it.
But What’s for Dessert?
She immediately pointed to a big tray piled high with things that resembled chocolate golf balls. They looked like they had just come out of the oven. They hadn’t even made it to the display counter yet.
These things! Yes… I had seen these before, but never all-chocolate. When we walked down “bakery row” in Santa Margherita Ligure, I saw these little spherical cookies called “Baci-di-Dama” – Ladies’ kisses. (Pronounced “bah-chee-dee-dah-ma”). I’ve had my eye out for them ever since. Tonight, I’ll finally get to try ‘em.
I returned to the hotel room with my foraged goodies. The ham and cheese sandwich was as good as expected. It was big, so we weren’t the slightest bit hungry for dessert, but these baci-di-dama would never be as good as they’d be tonight. We decided to finish them off.
They were so good. Mamma mia. I’m not usually a big chocolate fan, but even I floated up into the air after taking just one little bite.
I liked those baci-di-dama so much, after we got home from our trip I found a recipe for baci-di-dama and tried it out. An interesting thing about them, or at least the recipe I used, is that it called for rice flour instead of regular flour. The rice flour makes the cookie extra light. You wanna know how to make ‘em? Well… OK.
Let’s Make a Batch of Baci-di-Damas
Baci di dama are made from hazelnuts, so the first thing to do is to get some hazelnuts. Heat ‘em up in the oven, then rub ‘em in a towel so the skins come off. Then grind ‘em up in a food processor. OK – our hazelnuts are ready to go.
Mix the ground hazelnuts into some rice flour. Then add sugar, salt, and chunks of room-temperature butter. Mix it all up with your hands until you’ve got dough. Knead the dough until it comes together. Roll the dough into logs, then put the logs of dough into the refrigerator to get cold. Take a break.
When the logs are cold, cut them into little disks, put ‘em on a baking sheet and bake until they start to brown – about 15 minutes. Let them cool down. Melt some bittersweet or semisweet chocolate. When ready, assemble the cookies with chocolate in the middle so they look like baci-di-dama. Let them rest for awhile, and you’re done.
My baci-di-dama were good, but not as good as the ones we had in Alba that night. That’s no surprise, though. Everything tastes better in Italy.
To be continued…
Notes:
David Lebovitz’s great site is my go-to place for all things sweet or Parisian.
