September saw the comeback of Dolcissima Pietra here in Liguria, a weekend full of events dedicated to the sale and presentation of handmade Italian and regional sweets.
This tasty weekend was the seventeenth edition of this event which is many years old and which had been a much awaited appointment to mark the end of the summer and the beginning of the fall with the return of chocolate on supermarket shelves and, above all, marking the “end” of the pandemic, or so it seemed given the number of people attending the event.
Not everybody knows that it’s hard to find chocolate sold at supermarkets during the summer in Italy and that is because this food is considered perishable during this season and, at least national and local chocolate makers prefer to withdraw it from the market.
The event I attended is normally hold in the historic center of Pietra Ligure which, with its streets, alleys and squares, is divided into different exhibition areas and events including workshops where to learn recipes and chocolate preparation.
In the past editions, every year the event was marked by a theme and this year it was “looking beyond” and therefore innovation.
They also had a confectionery contest, a confectionery art competition created to enhance the professionalism of professional pastry chefs and to encourage cooking enthusiasts to show their skills and learn new ones.
In addition to the display of sweets from all Italian regions they obviously had and always have a special section dedicated to local products and local producers and furthermore the historical presence of an area where the classic Genoese focaccia is prepared which, as the Ligurian is known, often and willingly combine with desserts and cappuccinos (unlike elsewhere in Italy).
At the festival I got to buy some rare crunchy homemade pralines produced by local confectioneries. Round in shape, about three centimeters in diameter, they consist of a toasted hazelnut covered with chocolate and then covered with white small sugar beads which used to be colored until the early 80s (I remember them as a child to be colored but then these food colorants were banned).
The packaging is in colored tinfoil, with frayed edges and rolled at the two ends.
crunchy homemade pralines
I also got to buy some other candies from my childhood: crystalized violets.
Crystalized violets with sugar are perfect for decorating cakes.
The nice thing is that they are absolutely natural and you can easily give them to children who will love them.
They are made with edible flowers (violets) and sugar, that’s all.
They are beautiful to present as gift because they have a pretty (natural) purple color too.
Also the toffee candy, despite its apparently foreign name, is Genoese by birth and its recipe is from the beginning of the 20th century.
Toffee candies, also known as Mou candies, are made from caramel and have an English origin.
Their ingredients are cream, milk, condensed milk and butter. They can be flavored with ingredients such as coffee or cocoa or vanilla or coconut or cinnamon.
There are Toffee candies enriched with raisins, with honey, with chopped almonds or hazelnuts, just as there are also those with rum inside. Toffee candies have a nice light brown color, with honey-colored highlights. The Mou candies, linked to my childhood are the homemade ones which are much better than the industrially made ones. They have a consistency that gradually becomes softer and melts in the mouth.
