The Best Thing I Ever Ate...

Termini Bros Edition

Maria: Customer Relations Manager

8th Street Office

The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Scumetti Cookie


The best thing I have ever eaten at Termini Bros Bakery is definitely the Scumetti cookie. It's an extremely hard egg-white cookie which some customers often confuse with being stale. If they only knew what a treat they are about to experience! If you prefer this on the softer side, you can dunk the cookie into your tea or coffee, however I love it just the way it is, crunchy. This way, you taste all the individual flavors this small cookie packs. I love the slight hint of citrus in it, and the almond and cashew nuts just give it that extra nutty flavor. When you combine all that together you get a cookie that is just to die for--no wonder people refer to it as Brutti ma Buono!

 

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.

 

"The Chew" at Reading Terminal Market

You heard right! The Chew will be having a segment on The Reading Terminal Market. This will bring Food Network's own Aaron McCargo Jr, host of Big Daddy's House and Winner of season 4 of The Next Food Network Star, to The Reading Terminal on January 23. Aaron, who is no stranger to the Philadelphia area, will be showcasing everything that makes the Reading Terminal the landmark it is. Who knows? Maybe we'll make it on the show! So make sure you stop by the Reading Terminal Market on Mon. January 23 to get your chance to see Aaron in action and maybe get your 15 minutes of fame!

  Aaron, aren't these calling you name?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day: Cannoli

We're finishing Termini's 25 Days of Christmas with our most popular and beloved item, the cannoli!  Each one is made from scratch and created with the original tools used by the founders. The cannoli production process entails ten stages, involving at least ten different bakers. Each cannoli is hand wrapped around a maple dowel and fried in pure vegetable shortening. Cannoli fillings include Ricotta cheese, vanilla Italian cream, and Chocolate Italian cream.

Christmas Eve: Musticiolli Cookies

One of Giuseppe’s original recipes brought over from Enna, Sicily. Our 'Christmas cookie' goes through ten separate steps until it is a finished product. The filling inside each cookie consists of apple butter, mixed dried fruit, ground cake crumbs, and a few special natural flavors. The cookie filling needs to age at least six months prior to use. The musticiolli cookie is so popular during our Christmas time; we dubbed it the Christmas Cookie.

Christmas is almost here!

Ready for pistachios!

Day Twenty-Three: Italian Cream Cake

The Italian Cream cake is one of Termini Bros most time honored traditions. Each sponge cake is mixed from scratch and trimmed by hand.  Once baked, each layer of sponge is hand soaked with our own rum simple syrup and layered with our handmade vanilla and chocolate Italian cream. The chocolate Italian cream is then used to coat the sides of the cake prior to having cashew pieces placed all around. The final step is spreading and decorating the top with our original vanilla butter cream. Our Italian cream cake is the perfect way to celebrate any occasion or to simply enjoy with a great cup of coffee.

Only Three Days until Christmas!!!

Day Twenty-Two: Amaretti Cookies

The amaretti cookie is the most basic and traditional of our cookie assortment. Each cookie has a Kernal paste base and is the base of our Almond Amaretti. Every pan must be hand dipped into a tub of granulated sugar so the hardened sugar forms a sweet crust around a soft center.