These Italian cute egg-yolk cookies (aka Canestrelli) typically have a flower shape and a hole in the center. Using hard boiled egg yolk gives them a particular tender consistency, crumbly and grafant. This also make them ideal to use egg yolks left from chiffon cake, macarons, meringue etc… If you have egg yolks already open, you can put them in a bowl and steam cook in a pot with water. The final texture should be the same as in a hard boiled egg.
A Bit of History: Where Do Canestrelli Come From?
If you have a sweet tooth and a love for Italian baked goods, Canestrelli are a must-try! These delicate, flower-shaped shortbread cookies originate from Liguria, a beautiful coastal region in northern Italy, and have been a beloved treat for centuries. Traditionally dusted with powdered sugar, Canestrelli are known for their light, crumbly texture and rich, buttery flavor. But did you know that they belong to a special category of shortbread called ovis mollis?
What is Ovis Mollis?
One of the defining characteristics of Canestrelli is that they are part of the ovis mollis category of shortbread. Unlike regular shortbread, which uses only butter, flour, and sugar, ovis mollis includes hard-boiled egg yolks in the dough. This unique addition gives the cookies an incredibly tender and delicate texture, allowing them to literally melt in your mouth. The eggs also add a rich depth of flavor that sets these apart from other shortbread varieties.
The Gluten-Free version of Canestrelli cookies
For those who follow a gluten-free diet, traditional Canestrelli may seem out of reach—but fear not! My gluten-free version replaces regular flour with a blend of rice flour, corn flour and potato starch. The result? A batch of cookies that stays true to the original’s delicate, crumbly texture and rich, buttery taste without any gluten.
Egg-yolk cookies
4
servings30
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Ingredients
6 tbsp fine rice flour (60 g)
6 tbsp fine corn meal (60 g)
3,5 tbsp potato starch (40 g)
2 hard boiled eggs yolks
7 tbsp fridge cold butter (100 g)
7 tbsp icing sugar (50 g) + some more for dusting
1 vanilla bean (or lemon zest)
How to
- Start by cooking the eggs for 9 minutes. Let them cool, cut them in half and remove the two yolks.
- In a small blender, blend the egg yolks with the cold butter cut into cubes. Once combined, add the icing sugar, vanilla bean ex, flour and starch.
- Finally add the egg yolks. Blend everything for a couple of minutes, until you notice that the dough begins to come together. Then turn it over on the work surface and knead with your hands very quickly, the time necessary to form a smooth and flattened dough.
- If the dough sticks to the work surface, lightly flour it with rice flour. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for about an hour. When it has hardened, roll it out with a rolling pin on the lightly floured surface, forming a sheet of about 1 cm thick.
- Cut it with a mold, to obtain the scallops. As you have made them, place them next to each other on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Knead the scraps to form more cookies. Cook the canestrelli in a preheated oven at 340°F / 170°C (static) for 15-20 minutes. They should not darken too much, so when you see that the edges begin to brown, remove them from the oven and let them cool completely before removing them with the help of a spatula. Otherwise they will break!
- Serve the canestrelli biscuits covered in icing sugar.
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