Piedmont sweets: from the Savoy court to your table

Once they were the delicacies offered to nobles on a courtesy visit. Today Piedmont desserts are an opportunity to discover ancient flavors, made with genuine ingredients.

 

Piedmont boasts a great confectionery tradition, which today allows it to export various products all over the world, considered a real excellence of our country. The region, in fact, offers a large number of desserts, from biscuits to Piedmont spoon desserts, whose origin is lost over time.

The development of the confectionery sector is due to various factors. On the one hand, we must take into consideration the incredible abundance of raw materials: milk, cereals, hazelnuts, chestnuts, honey, all ingredients that the Piedmont master confectioners have been able to combine in a superb way and which today give life to a thriving market, a which is contrasted by the artisanal production, carried out by the numerous farmhouses in the area.

Secondly, you have to take into account the context: the Savoy family resided in Turin, who like all rulers held a large number of banquets and parties, in which sweets represented the highlight to show off their wealth. In addition, the opening of the first sugar refineries of the time made it possible to expand an offer that, until a few years earlier, was limited to fruit-based desserts only.

Here, then, that it should not surprise you if traveling around the region, you can taste typical Piedmont sweets of all kinds, from biscuits to those defined "spoon".


Piedmont sweets to discover the confectionery tradition of the region


The desserts of the Piedmont tradition will not leave you indifferent. It doesn't matter whether they are simple and genuine or elaborate and rich in refined ingredients. In any case, they will put you in serious trouble: where to start?

  • Krumiri – originating from the city of Casale Monferrato, the krumiri were born in 1878, thanks to the creativity of a Piedmontese pastry chef, who wanted to dedicate them to the memory of Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy, who died in that year. Their shape, in fact, is no coincidence, because it was strongly desired in order to resemble the mustache sported by the sovereign. These typical Piedmontese biscuits are very versatile: perfect to soak in milk, they are also suitable to accompany a glass of Brachetto wine.
  • Baci di dama – originating from the city of Tortona, today you will not have difficulty finding these biscuits throughout Piedmont. For the realization of the two discs of pasta, the original recipe of Baci di Dama involves the use of hazelnut flour, which a century ago was much easier to find, and a generous dose of gianduia cream to combine them, precisely, as two mouths in the moment of the kiss.
  • Gianduiotti – who doesn't know the Gianduiotti? These Turin chocolates are famous all over the world! Shaped like a prism, they boast the unique flavor conferred by the Piedmont hazelnut, which from the mid-1800s onwards replaced cocoa, which became prohibitive due to the increase in costs, caused by the tensions with Napoleon's France.
  • Nocciolini di Chivasso - if you have never heard of them, do not regret: in fact they are little known, but they deserve a mention. The ingredients are few, sugar and egg white, but what makes the difference is the use of hazelnuts from the Langhe, which makes it a unique Piedmont dessert in the world.
  • Bonet – this Piedmont spoon dessert is in fact a pudding, but don't you dare call it that! What makes it different, in fact, are its ingredients, which make it the most famous Piedmont dessert in the world. Eggs, sugar, cocoa, milk, liqueur and dry amaretti, which represent the real secret ingredient of a unique recipe.

This, of course, is just a short list of Piedmont sweets that might whet your sweet tooth, but of course it's not exhaustive. There are also the "ugly but good" ones, based on Piedmont almonds, the Asianot of Asigliano and the ancestors of the Pavesini, the biscuits of Novara.

And wandering around the farmhouses of Piedmont, you can taste them all, prepared by the skilled hands of those who have never forgotten the lesson of the renowned Piedmont pastry.

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