Taralli - Italian Mini Bagels or Pretzels

Taralli Italian Bagels in a basket
Italian Taralli Cookie Recipe

While I’m still in the mode of dusting off old family recipes, I found this Italian Taralli cookie recipe that my mother made every year around Easter. I have no idea of the significance of this recipe to Easter, so if anybody has an answer feel free to leave a comment.

These are also called taralli Italian pretzels or taralli Italian cookies, but I always called them mini bagels.

All I know is that whenever she made these tasty snacks they didn’t last very long and I was always begging for more. So I had to give this a try, and I wasn’t disappointed, the smell and taste quickly brought me back to my childhood.

There are many variations of this tasty Italian snack from sweet to savory. Our recipe is on the savory side using fennel seed, and black pepper. If you type a search for Taralli you will find many different recipes, I’ve never tried any of the sweet ones maybe next time.

Okay here is what I used for these mini bagel appetizers:

1 package dry yeast
1 cup warm water (not too hot)
½ cup olive oil
½ cup dry white wine (room temperature)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 tablespoon black pepper

How I did this:

Add the flour, salt, pepper, and fennel seed to a large mixing bowl, and mix these dry.  Dissolve the yeast in the warm water add to the flour along with the dry wine and olive oil. Knead until the dough is smooth if the dough is too sticky just add a little more flour. Now set the dough aside to rest for 30 minutes.

 
After 30 minutes I divided the dough into two equal pieces, and cut off small pieces and rolled a small log about 5 inches long, then connected the two ends to make a small bagel shape. This yielded 54 small tasty Taralli. The amount may vary based on the size you make; they don’t all have to be the same size unless you’re a perfectionist.
Start a pot of water and bring it to a roaring boil. I dropped 10 at a time into the water, they will sink to the bottom and come right back to the top. I removed them with a slotted spoon and placed them on a clean cloth.

Now it’s time to bake them, I preheated the oven to 325 degrees. Place them on cookie sheets with parchment paper and baked two sheets at a time, one on the middle rack and one on the top rack for 30 minutes. Then switched them and baked for another 20 minutes until they were golden brown.

These things are great to snack on all day long, pour yourself a nice glass of wine and enjoy these taralli Italian cookies. I’m sure the sweet version will be great with coffee or tea.

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

18 comments:

  1. Wow! Brilliant. I bow to the master. These look great.

    The Old Fat Guy

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    1. Ha Ha David, you give me way too much credit!!! I made these yesterday and just looked at the plate there are two left. They do go great with wine. Thanks for stopping by :)

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  2. Sam, you always something great cookin' in this blog. This recipe sounds so good, and you certainly make it sound easy. Yum!

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    1. Susan, I like easy, and these do have such a wonderful taste, they do go great with a glass of wine. Thanks so much :)

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  3. Have my wine ready, Sam... bring em on !!

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    1. Perfect because these are just great with wine. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend :)

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  4. Enjoyable post thank you

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it Martin, thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

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  5. Replies
    1. Thanks Susan, They are very tasty, I just can't stop eating them every time that I make them!!

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  6. I can always count on your for an exciting home cooked foodie loving recipe. Yummy again.

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    1. These are really not hard to make and are OH!!! so good. Thanks Lorelei :)

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  7. As always your pictures and description are amazing!

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  8. These sound so yummy! I've had them from the grocery store once or twice, but they were dry and I didn't taste any fennel or pepper. I'm eager to try a more authentic recipe :)

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  9. These sound so good. Something new for me to try.

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  10. These are new to be, but now I want to try them. They sound delicious!

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    1. Oh, these are so good, Daphne. Every year I couldn't wait for my mother to make these. I don't know why she always just made them around Easter. Thanks!

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