Goeffus A Sardinia
Almond Cookie

Goeffus are an almond cookie part of the traditions of Sardinia Italy.

In a nut shell these cookies are a royal almond paste flavoured with fresh lemon zest and in most parts of the Island they used fire water, which is a distilled grappa from the cannonau wine grapes.) to give a distinct aroma of the cookie.

The cookie is found in most parts of the Island and the basic ingredients for the recipe is nearly always the same, although in different areas you will find that are called with slightly different names.

Goeffus is the name is used in Ogliastra, whereas in the South they use Guelffi, in the area of Oristano they are called Gueffus and in the North they are known as Sospiri.

Which brings me to mention that the most famous variation of this almond cookie is the Sospiri di Ozieri which are covered with a thin layer is icing flavoured with lemon zest.

The basic ingredients are...

Sweet almonds and if they are Italian all the better
Granulated sugar

But they are two different methods used to obtain the cookie.

The first is the one I have already shared, which is known as the raw method.

And to cut it short here, it is mixed up with egg whites.

The other method used is known as the cooked method.

Basically the granulated sugar is placed in a heavy saucepan with a few tablespoons of water.

The pan is then placed on a stove and gently heated until all the sugar is melted, taking care not to let the sugar boil and turn to caramel otherwise you will end up with a brown coloured almond cookie.

Once the sugar has melted the finely ground almonds with the lemon zest and the fire water are added and mixing them thoroughly until all the ingredients have blended together.

As soon as the mixture is cool enough to touch, make up small round balls and roll into some granulated sugar.

Job done.

The most traditional way of presenting these almonds cookies is by wrapping them up in tissue paper just like a wrapped up boiled sweet, but in some cases they are placed into paper cups.