In order to avoid diatribes about the origin of bocconotti, short pastry filled cakes, let’s say at once that they boast of being a Traditional Food Product both in Abruzzi and in Apulia and Calabria.
An Abruzzese legend attributes their invention to a maid of the eighteenth century.
She prepared for her master a short pastry cake filled with liquid coffee and chocolate, at that time status symbol ingredients, to be eaten in one mouthful. And therefore, bocconotto.
The legend comes from Castel Frentano, province of Chieti, where we find bocconotto castellino. This version of the cake has a truncated cone shape and is filled with chocolate cream flavored with almonds and cinnamon.