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Homemade Friselle – A Cheap, Unique Housewarming Gift

Homemade Friselle – A Cheap, Unique Housewarming Gift

Don’t know what to bring as a housewarming gift? Here’s a delicious, edible idea.
By Carly DeFilippo

Friselle come in all shapes and sizes, but I like mine bite-sized.

Friselle are my signature housewarming gift. My friends have deemed them “addictive”, and claim to throw parties just so I will re-stock their stash.

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Friselle (Italian Pepper Biscuits)


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5 from 3 reviews

  • Author: Carly DeFilippo
  • Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
  • Yield: 2 (gift bags) 1x

Description

Friselle are my signature housewarming gift. My friends have deemed them “addictive”, and claim to throw parties just so I will re-stock their stash.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
  • 1.5 tbsp coarse black pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 1 cup cold water

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Combine dry ingredients.
  3. Whisk together oil and water, add to dry ingredients. (Tip: Measure 1 cup of oil in a liquid measuring cup, then add cold water until it reaches the 2 cup line. You can whisk them together in the measuring cup itself).
  4. Use a spatula to gently fold the liquid into the dry ingredients. (When everything is properly mixed, you should have fluffy dough that is still moist but does not stick to your hands.)
  5. Roll a handful of the dough into an inch-thick log (don’t overwork the dough, be gentle!). Cut into half-inch slices. Repeat.
  6. Line-up biscuits on a greased baking sheet (I use olive oil to grease the baking sheet. They can be lined up very close together as they do not expand much).
  7. Bake for about an hour, rotating trays after 30 minutes. (When ready, the biscuits will be hard but still light in color – though they may be toasty brown on the tray-side).

Notes

This is a recipe where substituting whole-grain flour is not the best idea. But, if you must, a blend of 50% wholegrain and 50% unbleached still works fairly well.

If your dough seems too dry after mixing, add cold water in small amounts. If the dough is too wet and sticky it will be too difficult to work with. (If your dough is too wet, add flour gradually).

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
View Comments (8)
  • Sounds like a great idea! I definitely intend to try these. In fact, there’s a “gift occasion” coming up for which these would be idea. I am wondering how well these keep (and whether they freeze) — or if I am going to have to bake at the last minute.:-)

  • I made these, they are wonderful and so easy, The only change I made was to add more pepper because our family loves pepper! I make homemade pepper taralli from an old Italian recipe, but it is time consuming and these are a quick alternative! Thank you for a great recipe! My taralli recipe calls for fennel seed and black pepper! I might try to add fennel seed to this at some point, but it s great just the way it is!






  • Thank you Anne-Marie! And yes – I’ve definitely made batches with extra pepper for my family as well :) I’ve been wanting to try taralli, so would love any recipe recommendations you may have!

  • Do these come out hard after baking? I hope so!
    They sound like something wonderful I remember from my childhood in an Italian neighborhood in north Jersey. We used to get these “pepper bread” from a bakery that only made Italian bread. They were like very hard (stale) biscuits that we would soften in a bowl of lentil soup or pasta fasule.

  • I searched for this recipe and voila! Except that I used a dry white wine, something you’d love to drink, instead of water. They’re great as a snack and floating in a bowl of soup.






  • My grandfather used to make these every year. Except that he used lard instead of oil. He also went heavy on the pepper. When we would go to visit we would eat these sometimes with butter spread on them. So delicious, if not the most healthy.






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