A night of revelry at a café that ended in confectioner Domenico Rossi’s kitchen — pure chance seems to have birthed Krumiri, Piedmont's most famous cookie. After 141 years, the recipe hasn’t changed. The Portinaro family, who acquired Domenico Rossi's eponymous pastry shop in Casale Monferrato and with it, the Krumiri patent in 1953 keep the tradition alive. The family takes care to prepare the cornmeal cookies using Rossi's original three-day artisanal method as well as to package the cookies in the traditional keepsake tin – they're an incredibly popular around Christmas.
And while no one’s sure of the name’s origins, there are two theories. According to the first, Rossi named his cookie after a liqueur called krumiro in honor of those late nights out with friends. The second theory leads us back to Casale Monferrato’s Jewish tradition — the Yiddish word ‘krumm’ means crooked in English...just like the king’s mustache.
Krumiri Recipe (Our Version)
Recipe: Joëlle Néderlants
Ingredients for 50 cookies
1 cup fine cornmeal
5 ½ oz. softened unsalted butter
⅔ cup powdered sugar
⅔ cup all-purpose flour
2 large egg yolks
½ vanilla pod
salt
Method:
Mix the butter with the powdered sugar and egg yolks, then add the flour and cornmeal, a pinch of salt and the seeds scraped from the vanilla pod. Blend into a stiff dough. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the fridge and place in a pastry bag with a 1/2” serrated tip.
Squeeze ridged tubes at least 2”-3” long directly onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then bend them slightly into the traditional shape.
Put the baking sheet in the refrigerator for around 10 minutes to cool.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 325°F then bake for 15-16 minutes. Remove and let cool.
Photo: Riccardo Lettieri, Styling: Beatrice Prada
Article originally published on La Cucina Italiana print magazine #2