Biscotteria Veneziana – Carmelina Palmisano – Zaleti – Raisins – Venetian Artisan Biscuits – Avvenice

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Biscotteria Veneziana – Carmelina Palmisano – Successful Venetian Specialties

It only seems like yesterday when Carmelina Palmisano was working in the family run bakery in Burano, in the very heart of Venice, a business that is still going on today. It is there that she first began mixing flour, eggs, butter and flavourings to create a series of typical biscuits: Bussolà, Esse, Zaletti, Moretti, Limoncini, Cocchini, and many others. Nowadays these biscuits are some of the best-known in the Venetian biscuit-making tradition.

Thanks to the experience she has gained, Carmelina Palmisano still creates recipes which epitomise her love for good, wholesome food, and her business has been gradually growing over the years, though staying loyal to her traditional homemade techniques.

Nowadays her products are distributed by M.G. Biscotteria Veneziana and can still be enjoyed locally as well as further afield in Italy and abroad. Her efforts to keep standards high, despite increasing production, have paid off and these typically homemade Venetian biscuits are currently being enjoyed by a wide range of customers.

Zaleti – Raisins

Zaleti are rustic biscuits with humble origins of the ancient Venetian tradition, made with corn flour. They were the characteristic dry cakes that the landlords obtained from secret recipes and were jealously kept next to the bottles of Rosolino, Nocino and Cedrino. Some sources date them back to the 1600s. According to local accounts, the inhabitants of the valley came to Venice to sell their products, including these biscuits, which quickly became famous among the inhabitants of the lagoon. The name is a reminder of their main ingredient, in fact Zaleto means in the dialect “galletto”, and refers to the typical straw yellow color given by these corn flour cakes. They are made by mixing the yellow flour with the “0” flour, then adding the sugar, whole eggs, egg yolks, butter, raisins, baking powder and salt to the mixture. They are excellent with tea or breakfast for the whole family.