Italian · Tortona

Baci di Dama

Baci di dama—'lady's kisses'—are the elegant sandwich cookies of Piedmont, specifically the town of Tortona, consisting of two small, round, crumbly hazelnut (or almond) cookies joined by a thin layer of dark chocolate. The name refers to their appearance: the two rounded cookie halves pressed together with chocolate resemble a pair of lips meeting in a kiss. These diminutive confections (each complete bacio is barely 3cm across) are among Piedmont's most refined pastry creations, balancing the region's hazelnut tradition with its chocolate heritage in a single, two-bite package. The dough is equal parts ground hazelnuts (Tonda Gentile delle Langhe, naturally), butter, sugar, and flour—a ratio that produces an extraordinarily tender, crumbly texture that shatters at first bite. The ground hazelnuts must be very fine—almost a flour—to achieve the smooth, even dome shape when piped or hand-rolled. Small balls of dough are placed on baking sheets and baked at moderate heat until just barely golden—overbaking makes them hard rather than crumbly. Once cooled, a small dot of melted dark chocolate is placed on the flat side of one cookie, and a second cookie is pressed gently against it, the chocolate acting as both adhesive and flavour bridge. The finished baci must rest until the chocolate sets completely. The eating experience is a precisely engineered sequence: the initial crumble of the hazelnut cookie, the smooth ribbon of chocolate in the centre, then the second cookie dissolving on the tongue. These are biscotti da tè (tea biscuits)—meant to accompany a mid-afternoon espresso or a glass of Moscato d'Asti.

‹Swipe for the next dish›

ServesAbout 30 baci (60 individual cookies)

Total1 hour 30 minutes (including 30-minute chill)

Sourced1of 6 in BC

Cook

‹ Previous · Baccalà Mantecato Veneziano|Next · Bagna Caöda Piemontese con Verdure Crude ›

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

200 g

Tonda Gentile delle Langhe hazelnuts

toasted, skins removed, ground to a very fine flour

Origin · ItalyBosa Foods · Vancouver →

200 g

unsalted butter

cold, cut into small pieces

Your own market

200 g

caster sugar

Your own market

200 g

plain flour

Not yet stocked in British Columbia

For the filling

100 g

dark chocolate

70% cocoa solids, finely chopped

Your own market

To finish

1 tbsp

icing sugar

for dusting

Your own market

Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.

The Method

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan or moderate oven until the skins blister. Rub in a cloth to remove the skins, then grind in a food processor to a very fine flour — no coarse fragments should remain. The ground meal must approach the consistency of flour; stop before the oils release and the meal turns pasty. The texture of the finished cookie is decided here.

Combine the ground hazelnuts, butter, sugar, and flour. Work the mixture until it coheres into a smooth dough — the four components are equal in weight, a ratio that produces the characteristic crumbly tenderness. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes; the dough will firm to a consistency that rolls cleanly without sticking.

Roll the chilled dough into balls of approximately 1–1.5 cm diameter — each finished bacio must be barely 3 cm across when assembled, so the raw balls must be small and uniform. Place on a lined baking sheet with a little space between each. The surface of each ball should be smooth and perfectly round.

Bake at a moderate heat until the cookies are barely golden on the base and set to the touch on top — they must not colour to brown. Overbaking drives off moisture and produces hardness in place of the required crumble. Remove from the oven while they appear only just done; they firm as they cool on the tray.

Allow the cookies to cool completely on the tray before moving them. They are fragile while warm. Once cold, they should feel dry and firm to a light press but shatter with only slight resistance — crunchy rather than crumbly indicates overbaking.

Melt the dark chocolate over a bain-marie until fully liquid and smooth. Place a small dot — no more than a few millimetres — on the flat side of one cookie, then press the flat side of a second cookie gently against it. The chocolate layer must be thin: it is a flavour bridge, not a filling. Set the assembled baci on a rack and leave undisturbed until the chocolate is completely firm.

Dust lightly with icing sugar before serving. The finished baci keep well in a sealed tin for up to one week.

III

Quality Hierarchy

Reserve — Tonda Gentile delle Langhe IGP hazelnuts, toasted and ground to order; 70–75% single-origin dark chocolate; fine French-style unsalted butter.

Estate — Italian hazelnuts of a named Piedmontese provenance, ground fresh; a quality couverture at 70%; good-quality unsalted butter.

Market — Blanched hazelnuts from a reliable supplier, toasted before use; a sound supermarket dark chocolate at 70%; standard unsalted butter.

House — Pre-ground hazelnut meal (must still be very fine); dark chocolate above 60%; any unsalted butter. The equal-parts ratio remains fixed at every rung.

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. Cookies are barely golden at the base with no browning on top — pale, just set.

◇Touch. Cold cookie shatters cleanly under light pressure, neither soft nor hard.

◇Touch. Chocolate between the halves is completely firm and does not yield when the bacio is picked up.

◇Sight. Each assembled bacio measures barely 3 cm across — two matched domes, symmetrical, the join invisible.

◇Where it lives or dies. The hazelnut meal must be ground to a true flour — any coarseness prevents the smooth dome and destroys the crumble that defines the bacio.

V · Cross-Cuisine Parallels

French macarons: the sandwich-cookie logic of two identical halves joined by a flavoured bridge, the shell defining texture and the centre defining flavour. Austrian Linzer Augen: nut-enriched dough formed into small rounds and paired, here with jam rather than chocolate. Viennese Vanillekipferl: the same nut-and-butter dough tradition, equal emphasis on crumble and restraint, finished with a dusting of icing sugar.

Pillar V

Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.

The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.

Enter · from $49 a year