Dome-shaped sponge cakes from Altamura, filled with lightened pastry cream and dusted with icing sugar — their double-peaked silhouette earned the playful Puglian dialect name 'nuns' breasts'. Hand-beaten without machinery, a centuries-old recipe preserved by the Poor Clares of Santa Chiara and now listed as a traditional Apulian food product.
The exact origin is uncertain. The pastry is rooted in the Monastery of Santa Chiara in Altamura, where Poor Clares nuns kept the recipe alive through oral tradition; production now continues under diocesan dispensation at the monastery's attached pastry shop. A competing account links it to the Bisceglie sospiri, allegedly made by Clarisse nuns for Lucrezia Borgia's wedding feast. Folk etymology connects the name to a nun's baking mishap, while religious tradition ties it to Saint Agatha, the Sicilian martyr.
A feather-light sponge shell shatters into airy crumbs, giving way to cool, silky diplomatic cream — lemon-bright and gently sweet — before finishing with a fine dust of powdered sugar that melts instantly on the tongue.
Separate beating of yolks and whites is the structural secret: yolks creamed with sugar for 15–20 minutes trap microscopic air cells, while whites beaten to stiff peaks form a rigid protein network. When folded together with sifted flour and potato starch, the combined foam holds a dense grid of air bubbles that expand in a 160–170°C oven. Cracking the oven door vents steam, preventing premature crust formation and ensuring even rise. Proteins set around 60–80°C, locking the open crumb in place. Diplomatic cream (pastry cream folded with whipped cream) owes its stability to egg-yolk lecithin, which emulsifies fat and water into a smooth, thickened custard.
Variations
The Bisceglie sospiri replaces icing sugar with a mirror glaze; elsewhere in Puglia the same shape appears as 'sise' or 'zizze', often smaller; an Abruzzese-influenced 'tre monti' version has three peaks instead of one. Fillings range from straight pastry cream to lemon curd or plain whipped cream.
On the Palate
Where Tette delle Monache sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 12
How it's made
7 steps · 1 hour active + 30 min waiting
- 15 min
Preheat oven to 165°C; grease and flour hemisphere molds or a silicone dome tray.
- 220 min
Beat egg yolks with sugar by hand for 15–20 minutes until very thick, pale ribbons form.
Watch outBeat the yolks and sugar a full fifteen to twenty minutes until pale and so thick they fall in a ribbon that holds — this trapped air is the cake's whole rise.
- 310 min
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt to stiff, glossy peaks.
Watch outBeat the whites to stiff glossy peaks that stand straight when you lift the whisk — under-beaten whites collapse and the domes bake flat.
- 45 min
Sift flour and potato starch together; fold gently into yolk mixture in three additions.
- 55 min
Fold beaten egg whites into the batter in three careful additions to preserve air.
Watch outFold the whites in gently with a spatula, cutting down and lifting over — stir hard and you knock out the air, giving a dense flat cake.
- 620 min
Pipe or spoon batter into prepared molds; bake 18–20 minutes at 165°C with oven door slightly ajar.
Watch outBake with the oven door propped slightly ajar so steam escapes — a sealed oven traps moisture and cracks a premature crust before the crumb sets.
- 720 min
Cool completely; fill domes with diplomatic cream (pastry cream folded with whipped cream); dust generously with icing sugar.
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