For batter
Half a pound of honey
A few blanched almonds, cut in halves or quarters, slightly browned
A few filberts (hazelnuts), cut in halves or quarters, slightly browned
A little candied lemon peel
A dust of pepper
A dust of powdered cinnamon
A quarter pound of grated chocolate
A tablespoonful of cornflour
Two tablespoonfuls of ground almonds

Bottom Layer
Large wafers

Garnish
Almonds cut in half
Powdered Sugar
Cinnamon

"Boil half a pound of honey in a copper vessel, and then add to it a few blanched almonds and filberts cut in halves or quarters and slightly browned, a little candied lemon peel, a dust of pepper and powdered cinnamon and a quarter pound of grated chocolate. Mix all well together and gradually add a tablespoonful of cornflour and two of ground almonds to thicken it. Then take the vessel off the fire, spread the mixture on large wafers, and make each cake about an inch thick. Garnish them on the top with almonds cut in half, and dust over a little powdered sugar and cinnamon, then put them in a very slow oven for an hour."

This recipe was taken from "The Cook's Decameron: a Study in Taste, containing over two hundred recipes for Italian dishes," by Mrs. W.G. Waters. It was published by William Heineman in 1920. For the entire copyright-free cookbook see www.archive.org...... P.S. I tried this recipe and found the cookies to be the strangest I have ever tried in my life. They're not bad, but they are strange. I can't compare them to anything that is part of Italian cuisine -- they come closer to South American cuisine as far as I can tell. Other Italian cookies make use of cloves and nutmeg, but pepper??? Not that I know of. That said, they do taste a lot like "mostaccioli." Those who go crazy for "mostaccioli" might go crazy for these too. The presentation of the cookies though is different from "mostaccioli." Basically, the look of these cookies is similar to torrone, except the cookies are presented on one wafer, rather than sandwiched between two. If I were to re-do this recipe I would not bake the cookies for an hour, perhaps five minutes or so, but any longer than that simply burns the wafer. Possibly, the type of wafer that was used in Italy at the turn of the last century could be baked, but nowadays the ones that are available don't take well to it. In any case, there seems to be no recipe on the internet for this style of cookie. That may mean the cookie is no longer done in Italy, or it may simply mean that the name of the cookie has changed. Hard to say..... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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