Pietra di Miele | All Things Sicilian and more

Shelves are being stacked with Christmas sweet goodies at Dolcetti. There will be plenty more delectable and interesting sweets to come. Many of her sweets will have Sicilian origins.

Dolcetti is now open from Wednesday to Sunday in December

One of the things that I really like about Marianna (the pastry chef and owner of Dolcetti) is that she is willing to make new sweets and be creative; I like trying new things. Today I was offered a taste of this:

I liked it and I hope that she will go ahead with adding this sweet to her range of Christmas goodies. She may experiment with it more before she is satisfied with it.

I have written about petrafennula, (also called petramennula depending on the Sicilian locality) a very long time ago in an earlier post called Arabs in Sicily, Some Sweets, Petrafennula. It is a Sicilian version of Croccante (brittle) or a Torrone.

It is a Christmas sweet like cubbaita or giuggiulena/ jujiulena (can be spelled different ways).

My recipe is made with almonds. Hers may not be called Petrafennula; there are many variations for making this sweet.
Marianna has used a selection of nuts: hazelnuts, pistachio, almonds and sultanas in hers – great stuff.

Arabs in Sicily, Some Sweets – Petrafennula

PETRAFENNULA – PIETRA DI MIELE (Rock made of honey).

INGREDIENTS
honey 1kg,
almonds, 500g blanched and roughly chopped into large pieces
candied orange peel, 400 g chopped finely,
cinnamon, ½ teaspoon (optional).

PROCESSES
Place the honey in a saucepan.
Add the peel.
Allow the mixture to simmer gently and stir from time to time until it begins to solidify.
Take the mixture off the stove and work quickly
Add the almonds and the cinnamon and stir gently to incorporate.
Pour the mixture on to baking paper placed on a cold surface – such as a marble slab or a baking tray (traditionally this is done without paper on an oiled marble slab).
Break it into pieces when it is cold. When my mother made this, she sometimes used to drop dollops of the mixture (about a tablespoon in size) on to a cold surface to form small odd shapes – more like pebbles than sharp rocks. This seemed easier than shaping it into one large slab, which then needs to be broken into smaller pieces.