Canestrelli, Canestrej, Vialardini, Zumaglini in cardboard box

The first written texts where we can find a description of canestrej date back to the 19th century. They are defined as simple round wafers similar to altar breads, enriched with chocolate, whose recipe used to change depending on each individual family’s origin. In the past, these wafers were baked in the fireplace using tools made of iron with pliers, which shaped them like a basket (in Italian canestro), from which the name canestrelli derives. To bake wafers to perfection, they used to suggest saying a Hail Mary to calculate the right time because the Lord’s Prayer would have taken too much time.

A manuscript dating back to the Napoleonic period (1805) which is held in the Royal Library in Turin praises the taste of canestrelli:

“Concerning bread-making and pastry-making, the area near Turin and specifically Biella is the place where the best bread in all Piedmont is produced. This bread, especially the one with a stick shape generally known as Cressin or Grissini, is delivered to Vercelli and even to Turin. Excellent canestrelli are also produced there: they are pastries whose chocolate base is greatly appreciated. These are also delivered to different cities.”

Canestrj and canestrelli by Jeantet hold the history of over 200 years at their core and they are prepared with the best ingredients, continuing even today to follow the oldest recipes.

Ingredients: Extra bitter chocolate cream, hazelnuts “Piemonte IGP,” wheat and corn flour, sugar, egg yolk, almonds, cocoa, cocoa butter, cocoa dough, butter, milk, salt, ammonium salt, lecithin of soy as an emulsifier, flavourings, vanilla beans.

Allergens: hazelnuts, wheat, egg yolk, almonds, butter, milk, soy.v