Rame di Napoli

Parts of Italy celebrate Day of the Dead as All Saints’ and All Souls’ Day. And while these cookies don’t have a direct association with the celebration, they are typically found in bakeries throughout the region for a few weeks around the festival days. These cookies are meant to look like aging copper coins that have turned brown with a hint of green.

Per DolcidiFranci.com (my favorite authentic Italian dessert blog), “These cookies are traditionally from Catania in Sicily, prepared especially for the Day of the Dead, on November 2nd. Though the exact origins of these cookies are mixed, the likely origin of the name comes when Sicily joined the Kingdom of Naples. The Sicilian king used copper coin alloys to replace the gold and silver. These cookies were given to the children of the town, as gift from their deceased relative.”

Rame di Napoli (Sicilian Chocolate Spice Cookies)

Recipes from BostonHerald.com and DolcidiFranci.com

Ingredients:

50 grams plain tea biscuit cookies, ground into coarse crumbs
1 to 1 1/4 c. milk, plus more (up to 2 additional cups) 4 C unbleached all purpose flour
1 C sugar
2 eggs
7 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp orange marmalade
1 C unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder

Chocolate glaze:
200 grams dark chocolate
70 grams butter
1 1/2 C coarsely crushed pistachio nuts

Temp: 325F
Bake time: 10-15 minutes, rotating halfway
Let batter rest for 1 hour before shaping onto baking sheet.