Twisted Cookies from the Val d’Aosta

This light and delicate yeast-risen cookie is a cross between a buttery bread stick and a caramelized puff pastry palmier. Torcettini were a favorite of Italy’s Queen Margherita. In fact, she liked the version in one pastry shop so much that she knighted the owner on the spot. A certificate attesting to this still hangs in the pastry shop in Saint Vincent.

You may have noticed that the name of the town is French, not Italian. Though the Val d’Aosta is not an officially bilingual reg