Baci di Alassio

Created in 1919 by Rinaldo Balzola at the Pasticceria Balzola in Alassio, founded in 1902 by his father Pasquale who had migrated from Monferrato. Rinaldo trained under Turin's celebrated Gustavo Pfatisch and later served as pastry-maker to the Royal House of Savoy from 1932 to 1938. He devised the cookies as a gastronomic souvenir for the Belle Époque visitors who crowded the resort, where habitués included Gabriele D'Annunzio—who reportedly coined the slogan 'i suoi baci sono i baci della galanteria' to avoid settling his bill, a phrase that became the product's enduring motto. The recipe was patented in 1919. In the 1940s, Perugina brought suit over the 'Baci' name; the Tribunal of Perugia ruled the Alassio patent antecedent. The biscuit is recognised as a P.A.T. (Prodotto Agroalimentare Tradizionale) of Liguria.

A featherweight snap at the outer shell—firm but not brittle—gives way to a dense, fudgy paste of ground hazelnut and bitter cocoa; the ganache centre floods the palate with dark-chocolate cream, and a faint acacia-honey sweetness lingers at the finish.

The batter contains no flour or butter; structure comes entirely from the protein matrix of whipped egg whites and the fat of finely ground hazelnuts. During overnight resting, surface moisture evaporates and forms a thin dry skin that crisps via the Maillard reaction at 170 °C while the moist interior remains soft. The ganache is a chocolate-cream emulsion: as hot cream is poured over chopped 70 % chocolate, cocoa-butter fat globules disperse into the aqueous cream phase; cooling drives cocoa-butter crystallisation in Form V, stabilising the emulsion into a smooth, glossy, spreadable texture.