Baci di Dama – Universo da Doçura

Baci di dama are small Italian sandwich cookies made from two domed rounds of almond or hazelnut shortbread, joined at the flat side by a dab of dark chocolate that sets firm and holds them together. The name means “lady’s kisses” — a reference to the shape, two lips pressed lightly together, though the cookies are small enough that the romanticism is more suggestion than statement. They are delicate, precisely sized, and consistent in a way that implies either long practice or genuine care, and the best versions have a fine, sandy texture that dissolves cleanly on the tongue before the chocolate registers as a separate, slightly bitter note underneath.

Baci di dama originated in Tortona, a town in the province of Alessandria in Piedmont, in the second half of the 19th century. The most specific account credits a pastry chef named Caviglia who created them for the House of Savoy — the Italian royal family, whose court was in Turin — sometime around 1852. Piedmont was the center of Italian hazelnut cultivation, and the Langhe hills south of Turin produced hazelnuts of exceptional quality that were already being used in the region’s confectionery tradition, including the gianduja chocolate that would eventually become Nutella’s ancestor. The use of hazelnuts in baci di dama is a Piedmontese instinct as much as a recipe choice.

The cookies received Protected Geographical Indication recognition as a traditional Piedmontese product, which acknowledges their specific regional identity without restricting production to a single town. Variations exist — some bakers use almonds instead of hazelnuts, some add a small amount of rice flour for a finer texture, and the chocolate filling occasionally gives way to white chocolate or gianduja — but the hazelnut and dark chocolate combination is the original and remains the standard against which other versions are measured.

Baci di dama are year-round cookies but appear in greater quantity around the holidays, packaged in boxes and given as gifts in the way that Piedmont has always treated its finest confections — with a seriousness that reflects a region that considers chocolate and hazelnuts serious business.

Regional Roots

Italy