Italian Zaleti

We would not be surprised if these simple but delicious biscuits becomes your favorite because they are THAT good. Originally from Veneto in the northern part of Italy, this recipe started as a simple and cheap dessert. Over the years, the wealthier people from Venice started adding raisins to it, an exotic and expensive ingredient at the time. In Venetian dialect, the name Zaleti means yellow for its distinctive yellow color from the corn flour.

There is more than one recipe for these cookies since it changes depending on the region. The one that Flavio made is a recipe that his Nonna has passed down to him. 

Ingredients

  • 300gr of corn flour
  • 200gr of all-purpose flour
  • 100gr of sugar
  • 100gr of butter
  • 150ml of milk
  • 1 egg
  • 100gr of raisins
  • Half a glass of grappa (optional, any other liquor will do)
  • Salt
  • Yeast (1 packet)

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Put the raisins in the grappa for at least 20 to 30 minutes. It doesn’t matter if you use another liquor instead of grappa. You could also use some water!

Combine the corn flour and the all-purpose flour. Add the sugar, yeast, and salt to the flour and mix.

Melt the butter and add it to the dry ingredients. Forget about spoons or whisks, use your hands! 

Add the egg to the batter and keep mixing. Throw in the milk and mix well until you have a nice dough. It should look like it could crumble, but you should be able to form a ball with it using your hands without the dough sticking to them. 

Lastly, squeeze the liquid from the raisins and add them to the dough.

Make long strips (2cm in diameter) with the dough and cut it into finger size pieces. Pinch the edges and flatten the top part a bit. You will end up with a slightly squared, oval-shaped cookie.

Place the cookies in a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake it at 180 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes. They should be a little brownish but still have their distinctive, yellowish color. 

FLAVIO

“I learned to make these cookies when I was a kid with my grandmother”

Flavio came to Hungary in 2017 from Vicenza, the northern part of Italy. He is a Ph.D. student in chemistry and loves to travel around the world, with a clear preference for Asia, so it is no surprise that his favorite food is Ramen. The weirdest thing he has ever eaten was hákarl, fermented and cured shark meat in Iceland.