What a delight are Sospiri! An ancient dessert, first reference mentioned in the 16th century, with a legendary and romantic history. It is said that these small sweets were invented and prepared by two cloistered nuns for the wedding of Lucrezia Borgia to the Count of Conversano. The wedding fell through and the guests, sighing for the wait, were consoled with these small sweets, which since then have been called “Sospiri”.
Sospiri are widespread in various regions of Southern Italy, particularly in Puglia and Sicily. They often have a tuft shape, covered in white icing with a cherry on top, so much so that it is said mischievously that they resemble a woman’s breast. In the recipe we present them in small cylinders covered in colored icing.
Ingredients (about 20 pieces)
- Sponge cake (three discs with a thickness of about 1/1.5 cm). You can buy it or make it yourself. custard
- apricot jam
- orange juice or alchermes
for the sugar icing
- 600 gr icing sugar
- water to taste
- food coloring
- sugar sprinkles for decoration
for the chocolate glaze
- 150 g dark chocolate (finely chopped)* + 25 g water
- 150 g sugar + 50 g water
- sugar thermometer
For the custard, use the recipe you find here (you will need a little for the filling, about a jar) and let it cool. Squeeze an orange and keep the juice aside.
Use cookie cutters to cut out 2.5 cm or 4 cm circles in pairs from the sponge cake discs (you will get about 40-50).
By using a small brush, brush the surface with orange juice (to which you can add a drop of alchermes if you like). Put a little cream or apricot jam in the center of the disc, cover with another disc and seal the edges well with your hands. Repeat the operation until you finish the discs and let them compact well in the fridge for 30 minutes. Arrange them on a baking tray with a rack placed on the bottom (this is important for dripping the icing). If you don’t have a rack, place the sweets on cookie cutters a little smaller than the diameter of the discs, so that they are suspended on the tray.
For the sugar glaze: In a large bowl, add 2/3 of the icing sugar and a little water (spoon by spoon) to obtain a compact white glaze that can slowly drip and remain a certain thickness (it must not be too liquid). To do this, add water and the remaining sugar until you obtain the desired density (test on a leftover sponge cake). Divide the mixture into several bowls and add a few drops of food coloring to obtain pastel shades (or the colors you prefer).
For the chocolate glaze: use the instructions found in this recipe (click here), remembering to pour it very liquid and to add a little water drop by drop if too thick, keeping it warm in a bain-marie.
With a spoon, pour the glaze into the center of each cake, adding glaze until they are all covered (do not spatulate. Let it drip) and repeat the operation for all the cakes. Leave to solidify overnight.
With the leftover icing you can create small decorations with the piping bag on a sheet of baking paper (and you will apply them with very little icing the next day), or you can make white icing and draw decorations directly on the sweets or you can use sprinkles… in short, have fun.
And here are the Sospiri, delicious and delicate, so beautiful that you feel like sighing when you eat one…
