Last November, taken from an abnormal Christmas moment, I thought it would be nice to organize something to physically approach people with whom only online I exchange words, cooking ideas, tips and stories every day. I thinked about on what was the best way, I excluded a meeting because it would have geographically limited the choice and then in the pre-Christmas period we are all busy with many dinners, parties, occasions: I have ended up with the idea of sending cards to those who wanted to receive them, personalized and written by hand. Honestly I did not expect a great response: my blog is small and not so much followed, very territorial, and then exchange real Christmas cards is now also in disuse. So I launched my idea on Instagram and Facebook, 25 tickets for 25 days of the Advent: I bought the beautiful Unicef cards and those who wanted one, just wrote me the address. The result was 22 tickets sent in Italy, 2 in the United States and 1 in Australia.
I started to write them all by hand, decorating them with washi tape, and dedicating a personalized thought to each one. In sending me the address in fact I could chat online even with those I did not know and it was really interesting and beautiful. In each ticket I also added a bonus, a venetian recipe for my recipients to experience it for Christmas: I immediately thought about sending different ones, but then I could not resist to the desire and hope of thinking about 25 people who, living in more corners of the world, knead the same cookie.
And so I wrote to everyone the recipe of Pandòli di Schio, a town in the province of Vicenza.
Calling Pandòlo to someone is to tell him dumb, stupid: these cookies are very simple both in the ingredients and in the flavor, but have the characteristic that, soaking them in milk, they so soften quickly to fall back on themselves, shyly hobbling. The traditional recipe includes lard: it is an unusual ingredient in cakes, but can give fragrance and a typical flavor, keeping them fragrant and fresh even if their duration is not particularly long due to the brewer's yeast.
And like a late Christmas present, now I'll deliver the recipe to you too. I hope you'll want to get your hands in the dough and sink them in this soft preparation: form them will be fun, they are like chunky breadsticks so perfection is definitely not required.
Melt the yeast in the milk, mix well, cover the bowl with a film and wait for it to start acting, I would say that half an hour can be fine.
In another bowl combine the flour, eggs, sugar, lard and a big pinch of salt: mix well, add milk and compact in a ball. Take small portions of dough and stretch them as if to form chunky breadsticks.
Butter a baking tray well and place them in order, then bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees: before baking, wait until the oven reaches the temperature so in the meantime the biscuits still rise.
If you want to flavor them:
This biscuit have a very simple taste but I think a bit of orange peel and fresh vanilla are perfect to enrich it if you like it. Otherwise, even the chocolate chips inside would be fine, but I see them all too eretic.
