Mostaccioli Molisani

Mostaccioli descend from the Roman mustaceum, a must-sweetened cake that Cato the Elder set down in his De Agri Cultura around 160 BC, kneaded with must, cheese, aniseed and cumin and baked on bay leaves, and that Apicius too recorded; the name comes from mustum, the grape must that sweetened the poor man's dough when cane sugar was costly or unknown. In Molise the biscuit became the sweet of Christmas: by tradition the women of a village mix and shape them on Christmas Eve around the piazza bonfires, to be handed out across the whole town, and they are listed among the region's traditional agri-food products. The thick chocolate coating is a later, richer refinement of what was once glazed only with honey or cooked must.

Firm and biscuity, giving a little resistance before it yields, deeply sweet with honey and grape must under a thick, crisp shell of dark chocolate that snaps as you bite. Almond, warm cinnamon and a trace of coffee run through the crumb, sweet but not cloying, edged with the chocolate's faint bitterness.

Honey and cooked must are largely fructose and glucose, hygroscopic sugars that hold water and keep the baked dough from drying to a hard biscuit, so it stays dense and chewy for weeks. In the oven the reducing sugars and the egg and almond proteins drive Maillard browning and a little caramelisation, building a toasted, malty depth; ground almonds add oil and more protein that keep the crumb close and short. The chocolate shell sets glossy and snaps cleanly because its cocoa butter, held in the right temperature range, crystallises into its stable form.