Naples biscuits // 18th century recipes
If you read any number of cookbooks from the 18th century you might notice Naples biscuits often pop up in various recipes. It seems it was a staple ingredient that was often kept in the pantry for the use in different recipes. While most of them mention the biscuits, there weren’t many recipes for them. That could mean that they were so common that people either already knew how to bake them or bought them in the bakeries. Uses for the Naples biscuits indicate they were quite a dry biscuit. One method was to grate them and use in place of breadcrumbs. Second was in early trifles where they were soaked in alcohol (sack was particularly popular) and then covered with fruit and whipped cream or custard.
Lapdog with Biscotti and a Chinese Cup
Lapdog with Biscotti and a Chinese Cup (c. 1648), Giovanna Garzoni. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence
Here you can see an adorable lapdog being caught snacking on cantuccini biscuit (on the left) and either Naples or Savoy biscuit (on the right). Having been raised with a dog in a household that slightly smug and slightly guilty face is unmistakable and frankly irresistible.
Seeing that they are such a common ingredient I wanted to make them for use in future recipes. The earliest recipe I came across was in the John Notts book from 1727 called The Cooks and Confectioneries Dictionary. However it had caraway seeds in it and since they have a very distinctive flavour I thought that the biscuits wouldn’t be as universal ingredient as I would like to. So I discarded the first one.
Mrs Masons Cookery by Charlote Mason (1787)
Most recipes were very similar, with the only difference being that the quantity of flour and sugar had swapped places. I chose the one with the smallest amount of sugar. Altogether this recipe can be found in 3 different cookbooks, including Mrs Masons Cookery by Charlote Mason (1787). As always I halved the amount and followed the recipe to my best abilities. Below are the measurements I used.
225 grams flour
170 grams sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tbsp rosewater
The recipe says to sift the flour and the sugar together 3 times, and then mix into well beaten eggs. The biscuits were baked at 180°C for 15 minutes. As I expected, even being very careful with the mixing, the batter collapsed. The resulting biscuit was quite leathery and rather unpleasant and the next day it was uneatable. I tried baking them for a lot longer to dry them out, however it didn’t improve them much.
The Modern Cook by Charles Elme Francatelli (1846)
The Modern Cook by Charles Elme Francatelli (1846)
For my next attempt I chose the Naples biscuit recipe from Mr. Francatellis’ book The Modern Cook, published in 1846. Interestingly the name had changed, now indicating the shape of the biscuit, and the batter had morphed with the Savoy biscuit. In the earlier cookbooks you can find both biscuit recipes following one another. They had the same ingredients (with different measurements) but were used differently, Naples biscuits mostly for use in other recipes and Savoy biscuits for eating on its own. Forward 80 or so years later Mr. Francatelli used the Savoy cakes batter for his Naples biscuits. The batter itself is very similar to our contemporary sponge cake or biscuit recipe. In fact nowadays you can find this it under various names, including savoiardi, sponge finger, ladyfingers or biscuits la cuiller.
As Mr. Francatelli recipe yielded quite a large amount I decided to more than half it. The ingredients and measurements were as follows:
64 grams sugar
2 eggs
18 grams flour
18 grams potato starch
The batter came out as a proper sponge cake batter would. Since I didn’t have a biscuit-forcer the good old piping bag with the largest nozzle I owned would have to do. Here I came across with another setback. The batter was very runny and after the I had piped it, the biscuits just spread and lost their shapes. Normally you would have the edges of the cake tin to stop the spread and force the batter to go up. Alas I still baked them at 160°C (fan) for 20 minutes. Recipe said to bake them for 1/4 hour, however thanks to my highly advanced mathematical skills they were in the oven for 20 minutes. While the end result was alright, it wasn’t what I was aiming for - the dry biscuit that could be used in trifles. It was a typical sponge biscuit albeit very thin one. So I discarded this one as well.
Mrs Masons Cookery by Charlote Mason (1787)
Out of curiosity I also decided to bake the the Savoy biscuits from Ms Masons cookbook. It had a higher flour and sugar to egg ratio than Mr. Francatelli, so the hope was that the batter wouldn’t spread as much. It was an improvement but still not quite there. The biscuits were baked at 180°C (fan) for 15 minutes. The ingredients and measurements were as follows:
2 eggs
115 grams sugar
115 grams flour
Lastly I wanted to go back to Ms Masons recipe and play with it. Nowadays any kind of sponge cake or biscuit is made by beating the eggs yolks with the sugar, then sifting in the flour and lastly folding in whipped egg whites. That it is done to provide the whipped eggs structure and strength and when you mix in the flour the air that you have incorporated in won’t collapse under its weight. That is what I decided to do. I also wanted to honor the original ingredients as best as I could so the same amount of ingredients were used. Success! The biscuits were dry and light but just a little bit soft in the middle. Just as I wanted them. After a few weeks I decided to make a little truffle-like dish with jelly, chantilly cream and pickled strawberries and the biscuits worked like a treat. So without further ado here is my recipe for the Naples biscuits.
Naples biscuits
3 eggs
150 grams
1/2 tbsp rosewater
225 grams flour
Whip the eggs and sugar together until they have become thick and creamy and leaves a ribbon when you lift the whip (around 10ish minutes on high speed). Sift and fold in the flour being careful not to over-mix. Pipe on a tray lined with parchment sheet and bake at 160°C (fan) for 15 minutes. Transfer them on the cooling rack as soon as they come out of the oven. The biscuits were nice when baked 180°C (fan) for the same amount albeit darker and drier/ crisper.
In conclusion I think there is still improvement to be done to them, however I shall leave it here for now. My comicaly large biscuit tin is already overflowing with all my test subjects and I need to put some salad back in my diet to keep the doctor happy. Next time I will probably reduce the sugar a little bit and bake them a little bit longer. I preferred them to be on the drier side but lighter in colour. Once I do that I will update the post. If you tried to bake Naples biscuits, do let me know in the comments and tell me how it went.
Disclaimer! I live in a small city apartment and cook on a electric stove-top and oven. The recipes have been recreated with modern appliances and ingredients from my local grocery shop as that is what was available to me at the time of writing. I only recently have started to cook from old cookbooks and still have much to learn so it is very much possible that I have misinterpreted a recipe and the fault is mine and not the recipes.
SOURCES
The Oxford Companion to Italian Food by Gillian Riley (2009)
The Modern Cook by Charles Elme Francatelli (1846)
Mrs Masons Cookery by Charlote Mason (1787)
