OFFELLE DI MARMELLATA

One of my favorite stories by Pellegrino Artusi is the introduction to a cookie named 'offella' - a diminutive for 'offa' which, in the dialects of Romagna and possibly Lombardy, meant a flatcake that was made with spelt flour. There is an expression in Italian, 'Dar l'offa al cerbero', implying that ancient Romans and Greeks would make a sacrifice of flatcakes in the hope of pleasing Cerberus, the mythical three-headed dog of Hades (Greek deity of the Underworld), whose job was to keep the dead from escaping back into the world of the living. Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (1891) is full of jokes, which makes it a delightful read, although most of these jokes were in fact Artusi's opinions on Italian society and politics. In this case, 'offa' was intrepreted as 'public office' and 'cerbero' as those who involved themselves with public affairs in order to steal the public funds.

 

Hercules and Cerberus, Peter Paul Rubens - 1636

 

Offelle, the cookies, were made with shortcrust - instructions were given on Pellegrino Artusi's recipe for crostata- and filled with marzipan, for which the book also provided a recipe, or with stewed/candied fruits. So there were offelle di marzapane and offelle di marmellata. Although most kinds of fruit preserves would make an ideal filling for these cookies, Pellegrino gave instructions for a speficic mix of stewed apples, candied fruit, and cinnamon. The dough was shaped with cookie cutters that looked like a flower and when a small quantity of the filling was placed at the centre, either you covered it with another piece of shaped dough or folded the original piece in two. 

Unfortunately, no hints were given in Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well about the ingredients used for making the original flatcake for Cerberus, whose image haunted the dreams of the ancient Greeks and Romans so badly that only a demi-god was able to fix the problem: according to Homer's Iliad (Book 8, lines 362-369), Herakles abducts Cerberus with the help of Athena, Greek deity of wisdom, in his twelfth and final Labour:

"[...] οὐδέ τι τῶν μέμνηται, ὅ οἱ μάλα πολλάκις υἱὸν
τειρόμενον σώεσκον ὑπ᾽ Εὐρυσθῆος ἀέθλων.
ἤτοι ὃ μὲν κλαίεσκε πρὸς οὐρανόν, αὐτὰρ ἐμὲ Ζεὺς
τῷ ἐπαλεξήσουσαν ἀπ᾽ οὐρανόθεν προΐαλλεν.
εἰ γὰρ ἐγὼ τάδε ᾔδε᾽ ἐνὶ φρεσὶ πευκαλίμῃσιν
εὖτέ μιν εἰς Ἀΐδαο πυλάρταο προὔπεμψεν
ἐξ Ἐρέβευς ἄξοντα κύνα στυγεροῦ Ἀΐδαο,
οὐκ ἂν ὑπεξέφυγε Στυγὸς ὕδατος αἰπὰ ῥέεθρα."

In this extract, Athena speaks of her father Zeus, god of thunder as well as the father of Herakles, who doesn't do her the favour to succour the Greek warriors in battle against Hector of Troy: "Nor does he remember how many times I rescued his son [Herakles] while he performed his Labours for king Eurysthenes. When he cried to heavens for assistance, it was me that Zeus ordered down to Earth in order to protect him. Had I, with my good heart, not escorted him into the Darkness whence he carried away the dog of the formidable Hades, he would not have escaped the water of Styx [the river that divided the Earth from the Underworld]."

 

 

OFFELLE DI MARMELLATA

This recipe is easily turned into 'offelle di marzapane' if you replace stewed/candied fruit with marzipan filling. For the second version, fold the shaped cookies in two, seal the edges as in 'offelle di marmellata' and bake without glazing. I don't normally change anything in Pellegrino's wonderful recipes but I did replace one part of the flour with spelt- that was originally used in the flatcakes for Cerberus. Also, the original cookies were made with two parts butter and one part lard but I used only butter and even made a batch with 200ml extra-virgin olive oil.

 

I n g r e d i e n t s

350g plain flour

150g spelt flour

225g powdered sugar

250g butter

2 eggs + 1 yolk

for the filling:

500g apples

125g powdered sugar

30g candied fruit

2tsp cinnamon

 

M e t h o d

1. Combine the flours with the sugar. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. Bind with the eggs and yolk, saving a little of the yolk for glazing. Shape into a ball and chill for 30 minutes. 2. Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Peel, core and quarter the apples. Cook in two glasses of water until soft. Remove from the heat, strain, and press with a fork. Add the sugar, candied fruit and cinnamon and put aside. 3. Preheat the oven to 180oC. Roll out the dough about 0.5cm thick, cut out flower shapes, and put half of them aside. Place a little of the apple filling at the centre of each piece of shaped dough in the first batch, cover with a piece of shaped dough from the second batch, and press the edges firmly. 4. Place the cookies on a baking tray you have lined with parchment paper. Glaze with egg yolk, if liked. Bake until golden, about 30-35 minutes.