Cavallucci Senesi - Sienese Christmas Walnut Cookies
Meet the cavallucci, the most unusual Christmas cookies, round and rustic, lightly flattened on the ends, floury and a bit lumpy.
This is an exclusive recipe for the subscribers. It is part of a serialized Tuscan cookbook that you will receive over the course of one year, a collection of tested classic Tuscan recipes to add to your cooking repertoire. Learn more about the I Love Toscana project here and find all the recipes here.
Today, as a small Christmas gift, we’re sharing the recipe for my favourite Sienese Christmas cookies with all our subscribers, as a thank-you note for an exciting year spent together! We are so grateful to have you all here!
Among Siena’s most traditional Christmas cookies, cavallucci are not elegant or photogenic, lacking the bright colours, icing, and sparkling sugar we expect from a Christmas cookie. Nor do they come in Christmas shapes: they’re round and rustic, lightly flattened on the ends, floury and a bit lumpy.
And yet, with that first bite full of warm spices, rich nuttiness, and sweet candied fruit, you’ll forget all about the presentation.
These were my grandfather Remigio’s favourite cookies. Every time my mum went to San Gimignano during the holidays, she returned home with a paper bag with a couple of cavallucci that Nonno had sent us.
Whenever I bake them now, I am brought back to those childhood Christmas holidays. The spiced smell lingers in the kitchen for hours, one of the most evocative aromas of Tuscan festivities.
A Christmas Cookie Box: from Siena with Love
Last night, I drifted off to sleep with the warm, comforting aroma of spices, honey, and candied citrus peel still clinging to my skin—a lingering memory of our festive Cook Along. Together, we baked two of Siena’s most iconic Christmas treats: panforte and cavallucci.