• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Sos Italian – Learn Italian online

Online Italian lessons, Italian culture, Italian translation

  • About
    • Awards
  • Choose me
    • Online Italian Lessons
    • English > Italian Translations
    • Proofreading of Italian Texts
  • Resources
    • Teaching aids
    • Teaching and Learning
    • Translation
  • About
    • Awards
  • Choose me
    • Online Italian Lessons
    • English > Italian Translations
    • Proofreading of Italian Texts
  • Resources
    • Teaching aids
    • Teaching and Learning
    • Translation
  • Home
  • My Blog
  • Learn Italian
    • Test your Italian
    • Exercises
  • Italian books
    • Grammar books
  • Online Italian courses
  • Contacts
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • My Blog
  • Learn Italian
    • Test your Italian
    • Exercises
  • Italian books
    • Grammar books
  • Online Italian courses
  • Contacts
  • Subscribe

How to deal with the days of the blackbird: coconut biscuits

Last Modified: August 31, 2015

The days of the blackbird – i giorni della merla – is an Italian expression meaning the coldest days of winter – specifically the 29th, 30th, 31st of January.
No one knows exactly the origins of this expression, but there are some folk legends about it.
The most famous one is about a female blackbird and her three chicks. The legend tells of how, a very long time ago, all blackbirds were white as snow and, during winter, stayed in their nests, waiting for spring to come. One year, when winter days just seemed to be over, a huge blizzard hit Italy.
The place where the female blackbird had made her nest was no more warm enough to grant her chicks’ safety. So, she decided to move it in a chimneystack. There she stayed with her babies for three days, until the cold ended.
When they came out, they discovered that, due to the smoke coming from the chimney, their plumage had turned black. From that day on, all the blackbirds were usually born black.

On a more personal note, I can’t stand cold weather as much as the blackbirds of the legend could. So, when winter comes, in addition to wrapping myself up in multiple layers of wool, as if I lived at the North Pole, I also pamper myself cooking some sweets and then eating them with a hot cup of tea.
Today I want to share with you a really quick and tasty recipe: coconut biscuits.

COCONUT BISCUITS
Ingredients
1 tbsp flour
4 eggs
40 g (1.41 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tbsp sugar
260 g (9.17 oz) chopped coconut
 
What you need
Bowl 24 x 11 cm (9.44 x 4.33 inches)
Baking parchment paper
Baking tray 42 x 35 cm (16.53 x 13.77 inches)
 
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 160° C (320 F).
2. In a bowl, mix flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and coconut with your hands.
3. Place a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray.
4. Break off small pieces of dough and roll them into small balls with your hands – about 2 cm in diameter. Place balls on the baking tray, spacing them out about 1 cm.
5. Bake for 13-15 minutes.
6. Cool and serve.

Related Posts:

  • Three peculiar festivals in Italy
    Three peculiar festivals in Italy
  • Three Italian titles to read this Winter
    Three Italian titles to read this Winter
  • Italian legends
    Italian legends

Category: Culture, Italian food and drinksTag: blackbird, coconut biscuits, food, i giorni della merla, Italian culture, italian food, Italian recipes, Italy, Sos Italian cooking

Previous Post: «Twelve things you should know before visiting Italy (Part 3): Coffee Twelve things you should know before visiting Italy (Part 3)
Next Post: Google translate: is it really so effective? »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

one × 4 =

Primary Sidebar

Italian grammar: beginner to advanced

Newsletter

Join my newsletter and get a piece of Italy delivered right into your inbox!

Learn Italian with my online courses

Sos Italian - Online Italian classes

Categories

  • Culture
  • English-Italian texts
  • Grammar
  • Italian food and drinks
  • Italian Language Certifications
  • Learn Italian
  • Learning
  • Teaching
  • Translation
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Advertising

Archives

  • Popular

Footer

Terms and Conditions

© Copyright En

Privacy Policy

Termini e Condizioni

© Copyright It

P. Iva: 02736390028

Copyright © 2022

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

This website uses Pixel Facebook to better measure, optimize, and retarget our marketing campaigns.

This website uses AdSense to enable an analysis of the use of the website and to allow third party vendors, including Google, to use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to this website or other websites.

Keeping these cookies enabled helps us improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Cookie Policy

More information about our Privacy and Cookie Policy

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance