In our last post, we wallowed in the chocolately pleasure of Whoopie Pies, perhaps the world’s largest sandwich cookies. Now we indulge in the delicate chocolate-filled confection called baci di dama, probably the world’s teeniest-tiniest sandwich cookies. Diminutive bites of melt-away hazelnut shortbread and bittersweet chocolate, baci di dama embody the classic Italian love affair of nocciola with its soul mate, cioccolato (yeah, hazelnuts and chocolate, but it sounds so much sexier in Italian). Baci di dama, also known as Italian Hazelnut Cookies, date back to the early 1800s in the Piedmont region of Italy, when chefs devised creative ways to promote the bounty of locally-gown hazelnuts. The name means “lady’s kisses,” maybe because…
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