Recipe: Italian Wine Cookies with Sourdough – Ciambelline al Vino
These wine cookies with sourdough combine all the flavors that I associate with Italy: tart wine, aromatic olive oil and fresh lemons. If you like, you can add crushed or ground aniseed seeds to the dough. In the area around Rome, ciambelline al vino are typically served as a dessert and dipped in local wine. But they also make a great snack between meals and store well.
Ingredients
- 210 g wine white or red
- 150 g olive oil
- about 600 g wheat flour
- ½ package of baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 60 g sourdough starter or sourdough discard
- lemon zest
- aniseed, ground or crushed
- sugar for the crust
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
- Mix the wine, olive oil, aniseed (if using), sourdough discard and sugar.
- Mix the flour, lemon zest, salt and baking powder and slowly fold into the liquid ingredients. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
- Divide the dough into 24 pieces. Shape the dough into rolls and close the ends to form a ring.
- Dip one side of the rings in sugar and place on a baking tray with the sugar side facing up.
- Bake the cookies for 25 to 35 minutes. They should be crispy but not dry.
- Leave the cookies to cool completely and store in a jar or tin. They will become tender as they cool.
- The cookies taste best on the second day.