3/4 cup red wine
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons anise seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (optional)
about 4 cups flour

Make a taralli-style dough using all the ingredients (if it's too soft, add more flour, if it's too hard, add more wine).

Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in clear plastic, place it in a container and cover it with a blanket.

Let the dough rest for about an hour or so.

Divide the rested dough into four or five smaller portions (keeping what is not presently being used wrapped in plastic so that the dough does not dry out).

Shape one of the divided portions of dough into a sausage-like roll and with a sharp knife cut a tiny piece of dough -- about an inch (These are the smallest taralli-style cookies on the planet!).

Take the 1 inch piece of dough and roll it either between the palms of your hands or on a wooden board. Stretch the dough out so that it looks like a thin rope (about 3 inches long and 1/4 thick).

Form a circle with the pieces of dough, pinching the two ends together.

Keep doing this until all the ciambelline are made.

Place the ciambelline on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake in a 325 F degree oven in the middle rack (or higher) for about 30 minutes or until the ciambelline are golden brown (If the bottoms of the ciambelline cook faster than the tops, put on the broiler for the last five minutes so that both sides are even in color).*

Remove and cool.

Serve with red wine.



* Please note that everyone has a favorite way of baking taralli. Some place them directly on the oven racks, other use wire racks, and still others use greased cookie sheets or alternatively, lined with silicon baking mats. The bake ware will determine the amount of time needed for the taralli to cook. Some cooks will turn on the broiler towards the end of the cooking time to make sure the tops of the taralli are well-cooked. Other cooks will flip them over. Basically, regardless of the bake ware used, the cook will have to keep a close eye on the taralli, as they (in particular, the small-sized ones), burn easily. Trial and error is an important part in cooking any recipe and for taralli it's no different.

Supposedly, the word, "ciambelline," can be translated as "small donuts," though there is nothing donut-like about this recipe. Of course, there are a number of Italian recipes that go by the name of "ciambelline" and not all of them are taralli recipes. However, this particular one is. It comes from Florence, Tuscany. According to food historians the Florentine "ciambelline" is made with flour, sugar, olive oil, red wine and anise seeds. An on-line store [www.la-madia.com] where one can purchase Tuscan-style ciambelline indicates that their pastry chefs use flour, olive oil, wine, sugar, and vanilla. Other sites on the world-wide web list similar ingredients for Tuscan-style ciambelline, except some cooks dip their ciambelline in sugar prior to being cooked, while others brush them with oil. In any case this recipe for Tuscan-style ciambelline is one of the easiest to do and is quite good. Photo: by the contributor.

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