SweetloreEncyclopedia of World Sweets (534）
Mostaccioli
Mostaccioli
Ingredients and Preparation of Mostaccioli
Baked Sweets ／ Naples, Campania, Italy
Mostaccioli are diamond-shaped spiced sweets enjoyed at Christmas in Naples, in southern Italy. The baked dough is coated in chocolate, and breaking one open reveals a sweet, strongly aromatic interior. They are also called mustacciuoli, and their softness and aroma differ from one pastry shop or household to another.
One method combines flour, honey, almonds, cocoa, orange peel and other ingredients, then cuts the dough into diamonds and bakes them. What defines the aroma is pisto, a Neapolitan spice blend. It combines cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, star anise and more, but the combination differs from maker to maker. When the baked sweets are cooled and then coated in chocolate, the aromatic dough is layered with a sweet outer coating.
Among Campania’s traditional food products, there is also a method that uses honey, flour, water, a leavening agent and spices, and covers the sweets with a white icing or a dark icing made with cocoa. Set alongside the examples from pastry shops that use chocolate, this shows that even under the same name, there is more than one way to finish the surface. At Christmas in Naples, they are served alongside struffoli and other sweets.
In Calore Salernitano and the Alburni area of Campania, the name mustacciuoli is also given to a different sweet made with local honey. In the method presented by the region, olive oil is used to shape the dough, and the dough is also brushed with oil before baking. These sweets are served at weddings and local celebrations, and are sometimes decorated with small, colorful sugar-coated confections. Although they share a name with the diamond-shaped sweets of Naples, their shape and finish are not the same.
The name is also used for similar sweets in various parts of Italy, and one theory links it to an ancient Roman sweet made with grape juice. On the other hand, another explanation links its shape to a mustache. There are various theories about the origin of the name, and it is not certain when today’s chocolate-coated sweet came into being.
Glossary
- Pisto
- A spice blend used in Neapolitan sweets. It combines cinnamon, cloves and other spices.
- Mustacciuoli
- The name for mostaccioli used in Naples.
