Ossi dei Morti-- "Bones of the Dead" Cookies

[Shoeburyness]

I tried making Ossi dei Morti from a fairly simple recipe (Beat 3 eggs with 2 cups powdered sugar until pale and thick, mix in two cups AP flour and 1 tsp. baking powder, form into logs 1.5" in diameter, let sit overnight under a towel, slice into 1.5 lengths and bake at 375F for 15-20 mins.) They are supposed to be very hard, to be eaten by dunking into tea or coffee or given to babies as a teething cookie. However, mine are just odd. They have a sort of crust, I assume from sitting out overnight, but then the uncrusted bits puffed out like a normal sort of cookie. They ended up tasting like bland, cakey sugar cookies, and aren't very hard at all. I'm thinking this is down to the shaping, which struck me as rather odd. Anyone know how one is supposed to shape Ossi dei Morti? There are a few recipes I've found that call for ground almonds and dipping in chocolate, but that won't work for me because I actually am usuing them as teething biscuits. I've looked for pictures on the web, and I can't find any.

[Franci]

I never made them myself, but I tried the sicilian ones. They are hard!

I have a couple recipes, both with almonds, flour and egg whites (no whole eggs) and they don't require to rest overnight. I have a beautiful collection of italian regional cooking, I will check for other regional variations.

[Susan G]

How high is the humidity in your area? The receipe might have originated from a much drier location.............that would affect the "uncrusted" bits.

Shaping them differently isn't going to make them taste any better, though. Sounds like the recipe needs a modification.

[jgarner53]

Why not just make biscotti without the nuts? The concept (if not the flavor) sounds essentially the same - though biscotti are twice baked, rather than left out to dry.

[Redsugar]

Ossa da Mordere cookies -- the name of which is translated as "bones to chew." For shaping, gather about 2½ tbsps of dough in the floured palm of your hand & roll it into a 2½- by ½-inch dowel or logshape. Cover with a clean towel and let sit overnight. Remove dowels from cookie sheet and lay on a floured pastry board. Cut 1½ inches long and return to cookie sheet. Bake until they are a light golden brown. Remove from sheets and allow to cool. You'll need to use a recipe that calls for finely chopped nuts, such as almonds, to help add extra crunchiness to the baked product. Although you intend to use them for teething, keep in mind that they always taste great dipped in sweet wine!

Also refer to this page:

http://www.italianfoodforever.com/iff/news.asp?id=193

[Tracy K.]

I have been dying (no pun intended! or maybe pun intended??) to get my hands on a recipe for Ossa di Morti that is made at Veniero's on 11th street (1st ave) in NYC. [Don't step on the ConEd grate in the street out in front....] There are two types of recipes out there that I've been able to find, both looking through every cookbook I can find and searching the net...one has nuts or chocolate and is shaped like a bone (this seems to be more northern Italian); the other is Sicilian/Calabrian has no nuts, seems to be more of a meringue and, most importantly for me, flavored with clove. The version Veniero's bakes during October looks like a small, coffee-colored disc with a marshmallow-shaped, hollow, white cookie on top of the base. They are hard, keep forever, and I can't stop eating them, when I can get my hands on them. (Which is difficult now that I live in Chicagoland....).

I don't know if I would use them as a teething biscuit, as they never would seem to dissolve, just break off into chunks. I have family in Ohio and there is a bagel shop there that makes teething bagels...egg bagels about finger-thickness...that my son just loves. They eventually soften, bit by bit.

[Shoeburyness]

I'm in Denver, so we are pretty dry up here. I have read that any kind of hardened bread can be used as a teething biscuit, so I might just make banana bread without nuts, cut into strips, and harden it in the oven ala biscotti. They have gotten harder over the course of the day, but still not as hard as I think they should be. From what I understand, they should be like bones (hence the name) and inedible unless you want to gum them or dip them in coffee or some other liquid. We gave one to the baby and he loved it-- he gummed it into paste. It didn't break into chunks, just slowly dissolved. It made a horrible mess, though. I think they are supposed to be pretty bland. If a teething baby is eating them, they won't mind the blandness, and someone older will be eating them with coffee, tea or wine. I might try clove, though... clove oil used to be used as a dental pain reliever, so I wonder if something containing clove would do the same thing on a smaller scale for a teething baby.