Pignolis...a tiny nut with a great journey.

It's always nice to know the origin of things. Such as food--where does it all come from? Where does it start? We have the answer! well, at least for our pignoli nuts. It all starts in a land far, far away called Spain.

Our pignoli nuts start their journey much like any other type of nut, tucked inside a shell. Only the pignoli nut gets two shells the pine cone (hence why so many people also refer to them as pine nuts) and an actual tiny, tiny shell that encases the actual pignoli nut. The Stone Pine has been harvested for its nuts for thousands of years and has developed over the years to have a reputation to be one of the finner nuts, like cashews or pistachios.

I wonder how many Stone Pine Cones this took?

The pignoli nut starts inside the pine cone which develops during an 18 month period. Once the cone is ready to be picked, it is placed in burlap bags and then left to dry--soon to to be eaten, well almost. Once dried, the cones will be beaten against a hard surface to make the nuts all separate from the cone and finally to be picked by hand! 

This little guy that we know as a nut, is technically a seed and has quite an extraordinary journey to reach us here at Termini Bros Bakery. But once here, we take full advantage of it's exquisite flavor and texture and pack full every cookie we make. After our cookie dough is dolloped onto baking sheets, the cookies are drowned with pignoli nuts. Don't believe me, eh? look at some of our pictures and you'll see just how many pignoli nuts we pack onto one cookie.