Our formulas

We have no secret formulas, but we have continuity through time of the doses and the selection of raw materials: this means that we really bake biscuits as they were once baked, and those who still have a memory of flavours and texture to the palate of cakes that came out from the kitchens of old can only confirm it. Since the beginning of our existence our short crust pastry has been made with pure butter, sugar and flour. We check every batch of butter and not just a sample, the ingredients that enhance the taste of our short pastry are always of first quality: the pine nuts are the long- type Pisa ones, the hazelnuts come from Piedmont and are purchased whole and toasted by us, the almonds are not kernels, the candied fruit is a real fruit salad (and does not come from turnips or pumpkin), the raisins are from İzmir and are hand-selected.

No artificial flavours

In our factory in Campomorone there is a lemon squeezer: that is our flavour maker, at least as regards lemon scent. For vanilla flavour we use pure vanilla beans, for anise the anise seeds and for the scent of orange just orange blossom water. It seems trivial, but it is not. Progress in the food industry has also brought with it flavours produced in a laboratory: we have chosen to give up this innovation and time is proving us right.

Mother yeast

“The universe exists only for life and for all that lives and feeds” Jean- Anthelme Brillt -Savarin, Physiology of Taste or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy.

In order for our small miracle of life to happen, it is necessary to leave a portion of the dough to rest for about eight hours. So our sourdough has been regenerating three times a day for over a hundred years, with cold water and warm water manoeuvres to restore its condition which must always be balanced. An art that recalls maternal care, reserved in the past to the women of the family and now entrusted with confidence to our leavening maestros.

We must reflect on the "Mother Yeast" because each yeast has individual taste characteristics related to a multitude of factors: territory, conservation, climate, microclimate, moisture, seasons and environmental disasters (great droughts or floods) that with the passage of time (150 years in the case of Grondona, 80 years for Bonifanti)is modified and strengthened in evolutionary terms, this happens during the "refreshment" phase (to refresh means to regenerate the mother). The micro-organisms, we are talking about 10 billion units in 1g of yeast (Yeasts: Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida and Lactobacilli Milleri: Sanfrenciscencis) coexist with each other exactly as in a community.

These organisms are sometimes in competition with each other and by feeding on sugars they turn them into alcohol and carbon dioxide. By reproducing only the strongest and healthiest strains remain alive. This process happens every day of the year in which the mother yeast (actually a part of it) is refreshed, is regenerated for the following day and then rests.

Like every experience that lasts over time, our growing yeasts have gained increasing exceptional features related to the ability of microorganisms to select one another. That's why our products are easier to digest and need no chemical additives. Time only accompanies that which contains a part of the future.