Savoiardi with mealworms flour

Savoiardi are excellent biscuits, light and fragrant; they are a traditional Piemontese pastry and their recipe dates back to the XIV century.
Their name comes from the chef of the Savoy dynasty that invented them and they later became popular all over the world thanks to the famous Tiramisù dessert.

What we present here is a traditional recipe with an alternative ingredient: mealworm flour!

Ingredients:

125 gr egg yolk
185 gr sugar
190 gr egg whites
100 gr plain white flour
50 gr mealworm flour
65 gr potato starch
50 gr powdered sugar
5 gr cornstarch 

 

Directions:

put the egg yolks into the bowl of the mixer, add 100 gr of sugar and turn on the mixer at high speed. When you whip the yolk, they increase 4 times in volume.

Now set aside the mixture of yolks and sugar and beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Pour them into another bowl of the mixer and whisk them at low speed. Once the whites have increased 3 times in volume, add the powdered sugar, little by little. As soon as you’ve added all the sugar, increase the speed of the mixer and continue to whisk the mixture until it’s smooth and homogenous, with the classic shape of a “bird’s beak".

Take the bowl with the yolks, add the whites and the powders and stir from top to bottom with a spatula. Transfer the mixture into a pastry bag with a smooth tip and use it to create  small fingers on a baking tray covered with baking paper; they must be 5-6 cm long and well spaced, since they will grow during baking.
Once the first baking tray is finalized, mix together the powdered sugar and the cornstarch and dust the savoiardi with it.

Preheat a static over to 230° and bake the biscuits for about 9 minutes.

The mealworm flour will add a characteristic toasty flavour to this fantastic and delicious biscuits. Of course you can change the recipe using different insect flours.

You’ve got to try them!