Sweets | Page 7 of 11
Antica Gelateria Gentile: the best ice cream in Bari
Schiuma Pastry Shop: Four Generations of Pastry Chefs in Matera
The Schiuma pastry shop sits a few steps from Matera's main promenade. The same family has stood behind its counter since 1946 - today the fourth generation. The surname Schiuma is Italian for foam, which by pure coincidence matches one of the shop's specialties, whipped mascarpone. And they fry Neapolitan zeppole here for more than just St. Joseph's Day.
Napolitaine: Pink Biscuit
Tekwa: Sweet Pocket Stuffed with Peas
Alouda: milkshake
Rasgulla: Sweet Fried Balls
Sagoo au Lait: Sweet Milk with Tapioca
Sufganiyah: Israeli Doughnuts
It looks like an age-old Hanukkah tradition, but Israel's biggest holiday food was pushed by the trade unions in the 1920s to keep bakers employed. Sufganiyah is a yeast doughnut filled with jam or cream - next to the ones back home it's a hefty thing, and Israel eats millions of them in a season. I bought mine at a Jerusalem bakery where the line never went away.
Rugelach: The Chocolate Crescents of Ashkenazi Cooking
Rugelach are small yeasted pastries of Ashkenazi origin that made themselves at home in Israel: triangles of dough spread with chocolate and rolled up into little crescents. The name literally means "little horns" and shares a Slavic root with the Czech rohlík. I explain why they are not a Jewish croissant, why they are usually dairy-free and what a pack of mini rugelach tastes like warm from the oven in Jerusalem.
