These crunchy Addictive Italian Anise Taralli are, in my humble opinion, the ultimate snack food. Traditional Italian baking can sometimes be a little time-consuming, but on the positive side, the recipes are usually really simple and often a lot easier than you think. And it’s almost always better than any commercial product you can buy.
The whole process of making these taralli cookies begins by combining some yeast, water and sugar. While the yeast is doing its thing, combine the rest of the ingredients and place them in the bowl of your stand mixer.
Then it’s just a matter of adding the yeast mixture and letting your stand mixture “knead” the dough for about 10 minutes.
For this particular taralli recipe, I love to use my stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. I keep mine on the lowest setting to prevent over-heating.
Alternatively, you can knead the dough the old-fashioned way, just like I did with my cavatelli recipe. The goal is to obtain a dough that is smooth and elastic.
Once the dough has been kneaded (manually or mechanically), place it in a clean, dry bowl and cover it loosely with plastic wrap.
You can also cover it with a clean tea towel.
Let it rest for at least an hour (I will usually prepare the dough and then “forget” about it for a couple of hours).
During this rest period, the gluten structure relaxes and the “rested” dough will be a lot easier to roll out.
I then place the dough ball on an un-floured wooden board, knead it a few times before separating the dough into quarters.
Then, cut each quarter into 16 pieces with my trusty dough scraper. I use a food scale to make sure that each piece of dough weighs approximately 25 grams.
Now it’s time to start rolling…take each 25-gram piece of dough and roll it into a rope anywhere 8-10 inches long and about ¼ inch in diameter, about the size of a pencil.
Join the two ends together to form an elongated ring and line them up on a wooden board. There is no need to flour your cutting board when you are rolling your taralli.
Feel free to adapt any sized ring shape when making these taralli; there is no right or wrong shape; it’s a matter of personal taste.
Like my fennel recipe, these taralli also need to take a dip in boiling water before they are baked. So once I have shaped about half of the dough into taralli, I bring a large pot of water to a simmer.
Carefully drop 3-4 taralli at a time (without crowding) in the boiling water. As soon as they rise to the top, remove them with a slotted spoon and place them on a baking rack to air dry.
It only takes a few seconds for the taralli to rise to the top.
Once this step is complete, you are ready to bake your taralli.
I will usually place the taralli directly on the oven grates and bake them at 375 °F for approximately 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature of the oven to 350 °F for another 10-15 minutes.
The final product should be golden brown and crisp. If you prefer your taralli to have less of a crunch, start checking the texture after 15 minutes (of total baking time) and pull them out when you want.
More Italian anise recipes
Anise’s lovely scent and delicious taste make it perfect for baking tasty cookies. Here are some Italian cookie recipes I love that feature this remarkable spice.
- Anisette Sponge Cookies: Experience the delicious combination of a light, airy texture and the enticing flavor of anise in this copycat Stella D’oro recipe.
- Italian Anise Cookies: Discover the charm of these Italian Anise Cookies with their uniquely spongy interior perfect for dunking in your favorite beverage.
- Anise Biscotti: This nut-free Anise Biscotti recipe is uniquely baked in a loaf pan for a delightful twist! Intrigued? Join me as we explore the simplicity of making this delicious treat.
- Italian Wine Cookies: Are you looking for ways to use leftover wine? This recipe for traditional rustic-looking Ciambelline al Vino with a hint of anise is the perfect solution!
Recipe origin
A colleague of mine recently shared his mom’s recipe for this crunchy taralli recipe.
She is originally from the beautiful region of Calabria in Southern Italy, from the city of Cosenza.
My colleague tells me that his mom, along with her friends, will make these taralli as a fundraiser activity for their local church.
Since these women make thousands of these taralli, they use a sausage attachment to press the dough in long coils. Then it’s just a matter of cutting the dough and forming the rings.
Isn’t that just a genius idea!
As I have previously mentioned, there truly are so many variations of this simple Italian snack food. You can choose to add (or not add) yeast, water, eggs, wine, fennel, anise, rosemary, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes… there is so much room for creativity here.
I should also mention that taralli originate from lots of different regions in Italy, like Bari (taralli Baresi), Puglia (taralli Pugliese), Calabria (taralli Calabrese), Napoli (taralli napoletani), and so on. And, of course, each place has its take on taralli. I find it so interesting when a recipe is embraced and tweaked by so many families in so many places, and so my colleague’s taralli excites me!
Forget the bag of chips! The next time you feel like snacking, make sure you have some of these Italian taralli on hand.
THANKS SO MUCH for following and being part of the She Loves Biscotti community where you will find Simple & Tasty Family-Friendly Recipes with an Italian Twist.
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Ciao for now,
Maria
★★★★★ If you have made this taralli recipe, I would love to hear about it in the comments below and be sure to rate the recipe!
Recipe
Crunchy Addictive Italian Anise Taralli
Ingredients
- 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast 8 grams
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup water lukewarm
- 1 kg all-purpose flour approximately 7 cups
- 1½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon anise seed heaping
- ¾ cup olive oil
- 1 cup white wine
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar and water.
- Stir and let stand for 10 minutes (will get foamy).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the rest of the ingredients.
- Add the yeast mixture.
- With dough hook attachment knead for approximately 10 minutes until you have a soft, smooth elastic dough. Alternately, you can knead by hand.
- Cover loosely with plastic wrap and tea towel and allow dough to rest for at least 1 hour.
- Place the ball of dough on an un-floured wooden board.
- Knead the dough for about 1 minute.
- Separate the dough into quarters (cover the dough you are not using).
- Cut each quarter into 16 pieces. (each piece should weigh about 25 grams-almost 1 oz).
- Roll each 25 gram piece of dough into a rope approximately 8 inches long and ¼ inch in diameter (about the size of a pencil).
- Join the two ends together to form an elongated ring and line them up on a wooden board. (There is no need to flour your cutting board when you are rolling your taralli. Feel free to adapt any sized ring-shape when you are making these taralli; if you want thin crispy taralli, the diameter must be ¼ inch thick). Make sure that you press the ends firmly together.
- Bring a large pot of water to boil, then reduce heat so that the water simmers.
- Plunge the taralli in boiling water; 3-4 at a time. Once they surface to the top, remove with slotted spoon. The boiling process (per batch) should take less than 15 seconds.
- Place on cooling rack to drain.
- Repeat process until all the taralli have been boiled.
- Place boiled taralli directly on oven grates or on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 375° F for 10 minutes, then lower heat to 350° F for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown and crisp. (Set oven rack in the center).
Notes
I prefer to use the more pronounced taste of olive oil in my taralli. Feel free to use a vegetable or canola oil. Please keep in mind that the nutritional information provided below is just a rough estimate and variations can occur depending on the specific ingredients used.
Nutrition
Amelia
Thank you you for posting the recipe. My Nonna would make these all the time and would make hundreds at a time. She would bag them and freeze them for when people came over.i always asked her for the recipe but she never had one. She did everything by “feel”. A handful of this and a pinch of that
She made everything out tools either. Everything would get piled in a nest of flour on a wooden board Nonno made her. ❤
Maria
My pleasure Amelia. I can definitely relate ♥ How lucky we are to have so many wonderful memories. Thanks so much for sharing. Have a wonderful day 🙂
Ava Hayes
Hi,
My sister-in-law served taralli (the savory/aninse type) at Thanksgiving, and I’ve been obsessed ever since! Her aunt made them, and we’re hoping to learn how to make them ourselves. I just received a first effort from sister-in-law. The flavor is perfect, but the pretzels are tough. What causes the dough to become tough/hard? I bake a lot of bread myself, wondering if it’s too much handling of the dough? Repeated rolling? Thanks for any suggestions you may have, and thank you for your recipe, which we will try! Happy New Year!
Maria
I also have a taralli obsession… so you have definitely come to the right place 😉 It has been my experience that if you leave the taralli in the oven for too long, they will definitely dry out and become hard and tough. So the oven temperature can be an issue. That being said, there are so many recipes that have varying degrees of “hardness”. The issue then becomes the proportion of dry (ie the flour) to wet (ie the water) ingredients. Based on personnel experience, I do not think it is an issue of over handling the dough. Hope that helps 🙂 I also failed the first couple of times I tried making taralli on my own and my Mom was a taralli queen… so don’t give up! Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with. Would like to also wish you and yours all the best for the New Year!
Ava Hayes
Thank yours, Maria…so very kind of you to take the time to offer some tips. I will definitely let you know what we learn. Giving up is not an option!
best regards,
Ava
Jenni
Hi Maria,
This is my first time on your site.
I came across it while looking to put a name to, and a recipe for, the “hard” Italian pretzels that my grandmother used to make around Christmas time to shared with her family & friends.
She boiled them first then baked them in her coal stove oven.
She was from a small mountain village in southern Italy called San Nicola dell’Alto.
I don’t know what the pretzels were called but they were very, very hard.
To eat them, we cracked them into little pieces with a nut cracker and then added the pieces to a cup (or bowl 🙂 of coffee to soften (re-hydrate) them enough to eat and enjoy them.
They had just a wonderful taste, and as kids, we got to drink the coffee that they were soaking in.
I have looked high and low for a commercially sold product close to this but the only product I’ve found were those small tarelli but never the same consistency as my grandmothers “pretzels.”
If you can put a name to them it would really be a Christmas present to treasure.
Thank you so much for having a site like this.
Maria
Hi Jenna! Welcome to She Loves Biscotti 🙂 So happy that you found the site.
Thank you for sharing your childhood memory… I can only imagine how grown up you felt having coffee. I remember feeling the same way when my grandfather would share his wine soaked fruit with his grandchildren… much to the dismay of my mom 🙂
It sounds to me like it might be a variation of a taralli. I looked up San Nicola dell’Alto and apparently it was an Arbëreshë village in Calabria. A friend of mine is originally from Ururi, a small town in the province of Campobasso, that was also an Arbëreshë village. I will ask her if this taralli sounds familiar to her.
In the meanwhile, perhaps there is a reader that will be able to provide you with the proper name of the recipe. If ever I come across such a recipe, I will be sure to let you know. Do you remember if there was a predominant flavor?
Wishing you and your loved ones a Buon Natale ♥♥♥
John
My great aunt made these for the family, and they were shipped to all of us around the US when she made them, usually getting a couple 1 gallon ziplock bags in the mail, it was a great treat. We called them “tarad” rather than taralli, and now that I found this recipe, I’m going to pick up the tradition that has been missing for almost two decades.
John
I may use an amontillado instead of a white wine.
Maria
Wow! That sure was a lot of “tarad”! It never seizes to amaze me how much food was prepared… baking and cooking for days… all to be shared with family and friends. What a great way to honor the memory of your great aunt ♥ Appreciate you taking the time to share your story. Thank you John 🙂
Sabrina
Hi Maria,
Tried your recipe and loved the taralli! However, mine took a long time to bake until they were nice and golden. I placed them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper, baked them at 375 for 10 mins…and then for 30 minutes at 350 to get a nice golden color.
Maria
Fantastic Sabrina! I would suspect the bake time would be a little longer since I placed mine directly on the oven grates and you used a cookie sheet. Really appreciate you sharing your experience. I am sure your comment will help readers that want to use parchment paper to bake their taralli. Thanks for taking the time to comment ♥
Joan
Instead of anise seeds ..can you use anise extract and if so would you know how much? Thanks!
Maria
Yes, I would add about 2 teaspoons of extract. Appreciate your comment 🙂
Catherine S.
What can I substitute for the wine? Or can I just omit it?
Maria
Hi Catherine, Although I have never tried it, you can try to replace half the amount with water. Not sure if anyone else has tried this. Would love to hear about your results if you do decide to try it. Appreciate your comment 🙂
Phyllis
Hi Maria,
I grew up eating taralli but we called them biscotti sorti. I just made your recipe. It was great! The dough was easy to roll out and they turned out beautiful.
Thank you! My family will enjoy them!
Maria
I am so glad you like them! I love all the different names associated with taralli… Thanks so much Phyllis 🙂
Mary
These were terrific. Nice and light although they needed more salt. The next time I make them, Ill add double the salt. 1 1/2 tsp salt for over 7 cups of flour is very little for my liking.
I’m sure they would be great with black pepper as well! Thanks!!
Maria
Wonderful to hear Mary, so glad you enjoyed them. Appreciate your feedback. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment 🙂
Teresa
Love these. Is there a substitute for the white wine? I usually do not have it on hand.
Maria
Sorry Teresa, I do not know if there is a substitution for the white wine that would work with this particular recipe. I have asked a couple of my friends and no one had an answer. What I might suggest is finding a recipe which does not have any white wine. Might I suggest this other taralli recipe I just recently posted. Hope that helps. Thanks for dropping by 🙂