Edit: Since writing this, and based on a comment below, I have tried the Cianciullo taralli. The texture is almost identical to what I remember, the closest to anything else I have encountered. The flavor seems a bit different, but 65 years later that memory could have faded.
I’ve written before and copiously about Sara Lee Frozen All-Butter Brownies. But for a long time I’ve been craving these lost little treats from Stella d’Oro, flower-shaped biscuits that I used to get at my nonna’s house in New York when I was young.
Not soft, not crunchy, but with a unique texture all thier own. And they appear to have vanished forever. I have written to Stella d’Oro and begged for a resurrection of this product, as I know many others have done, but thus far our pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Someone suggested that Clementi’s original taralli are as close as you can get:
Taralli (foreground) and other yummy things from Clementi
And I’d try some in a heartbeat but you have to order them by the case. Other websites sell them by the pack, but at double the price plus shipping, so I’ll have to wait until I can get down to Hackensack to pick up a bag and see for myself, which thing I will not fail to do.
Speaking of taralli, let me introduce you to Graziella. The photo and text below are from The Italians, Face of a Nation by John Phillips, published in 1965 by McGraw-Hill.
“When Graziella was born in 1864, Lincoln was President of the United States of America, Napoleon III was Emperor of France, Bismarck was Chancellor of Prussia, Victoria was Queen of England, and Victor Emmanuel II was the first ruler of the new kingdom of Italy. Thirty-nine months before, an ancient civilization had finally become a young nation. though France maintained the sovereignty of the Papacy over Rome, while Austria retained the Italian-speaking provinces of Mantua, Venice and Trento. Graziella was two when Victor Emmanuel took advantage of the Austro-Prussian war to annex Mantua and Venice. On her seventh birthday, after Napoleon fell, her monarch got a special present: Rome.
Graziella never did learn to read. Her sovereign was more interested in colonial annexation than in the literacy rate of his people. At eighteen, the cheerful illiterate married a Neapolitan diver. That was the year Italy took her first dip into colonialism and came up with Assab, on the Red Sea. During Graziella’s first pregnancy, Italy signed her first international agreement and joined the Triple Alliance. This pact favored Austria, the hereditary enemy, and benefited Germany, but it did gratify the Italian national pride.
The first of Graziella’s nine children was born the same year that a blacksmith’s wife had a son whose name was Benito Mussolini. The birth of Graziella’s second child coincided with the conquest of Eritrea. Then came Teresa in 1892, the year the Italian socialists held their first congress. By the time Assunta was born, two years later, the socialist party had been dissolved. In 1895 Graziella had her fifth child in the midst of national rejoicing – Ethiopia had been conquered, Graziella mourned the death of her sixth child in the midst of national grief over being driven out of Ethiopia. Rosa’s birth preceded the tumultuous riots of 1898, which led to reprisals against the workers who had participated in them. Peppino was born the year Umberto l was assassinated in reprisal for the 1898 reprisals. Graziella’s last child celebrated her tenth birthday the year Italy conquered Libya and Cyrenaica.
A year later, in 1913, Graziella went to work to supplement her husband’s earnings. She had been selling fried peppers and eggplant for a year when the socialist firebrand Benito Mussolini tried to start a revolution at the outbreak of World War 1. Mussolini was against nationalism and war. The spring of 1915, Graziella moved her stand next to Zi Teresa, a restaurant on Naples’ waterfront, as Italy switched partners and declared war on her former allies of the Triple Alliance – in the name of “Holy Egoism.” In return, Italy received Trento, Alto Adige, Venezia Giulia, Trieste, and the Istrian Peninsula. Graziella was 58 when Mussolini became a nationalist, and 71 at the time he attacked Ethiopia. She was 75 the year the Duce blustered into World War II, and 80 when he could be seen dangling head down at a gas station in Milan.
Graziella became a widow the year the monarchy was abolished in 1946. Since then, too old to fry peppers and eggplant, she sells taralli. You can find her along Santa Lucia any day the weather is fair.”
What an incredible life; it reflects a century of Italian history. I lived in Naples in 1969, and I swear I saw Graziella there; I suspect, however, that I’m just combining my own memories with the images and words from this lovely book, because by that time Graziella would have been 105. At any rate, thinking of taralli always makes me think of her; you can see the massive ones she sold in the picture above.
If you want to try some of your own, I found a likely recipe at Lidia’s Italy.
Please, Stella d’Oro, bring back your egg biscuits.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Playing in the World Game 
Oh my! The name of those Egg Biscuits has haunted me for years. I grew up on them. Ate them daily, my entire childhood! My whole family is deceased, and no one else I have asked remembers them AT ALL. And, yes, I order the Clemente taralli because it is the closest taste and texture. Thank you so much for this validation!
I’ve been looking everywhere for a copycat recipe for the Stella D’oro Como Delights that they stopped making in the 90’s, no luck what’s so ever.
yes, same. I remember eating como delights – what a treat. I wish they’d bring this cookie back.
Please bring them back !!my grandmother at Easter would put icing and jellybeans on them , yummy so good : a taste of my child hood!
I even asked a Stello D’oro rep about these. I used to share them with my grandma! I wish they would bring them back as well. Light airy not alot of sugar and satisfying .
The texture was incomparable!
Dipped in coffee incomparable to anything else. Simply delicious
Yessss!!! I loved those egg biscuits. I’d been looking for a long long time. Please bring them back!!!
Stella D’ore bring back your old Egg Biscuit. Love them.
Best cookies ever. I miss those frosted and U.N. frosted egg biscuits. My kids even loved them! Pleeeeese bring them back!!!
OMG….I just recalled the lovely memories of my Baba always having these at her house. We would eat them with tea. Soooo, my quest was to find them, but to no avail. Gosh, I miss them sooo much.
I also grew up with these. I had a great aunt who was diabetic and always had them in her kitchen. Love, love, love them. Been searching for them in vain. They were great with Muenster cheese! Please bring these wonderful biscuits back!
If Stella Doro brought those egg biscuits back I would buy them weekly! I miss them SOOO much! I Love them and miss them so much! Please—There is nothing comparable.
You and me both! I keep pestering them…
I loved the egg biscuits as a kid growing up in the Detroit area, haven’t been able to find them anywhere
Yeah, we need to keep up the pressure and maybe we can convince them to bring them back.
Thank you I’ve been inquiring about these delicious egg biscuits myself. Maybe some famous cook from Food Network can recreate them!
I tried the Taralli and did not find them to be very close at all. They were OK not too sweet, but the texture was all wrong. The Stella D’oro were airy and almost a powdery feeling in your mouth. The Taralli are sort of hard and crunchy!
That’s it. My experience exactly. The Stella d’Oros had a texture I have never encountered elsewhere.
Hi, Taking advice, probably from someone here, I bought the EGG Tarrali. Really, eyes closed: the Stella d’oros are back!! I have not tried the frosted ones. the plain Egg Tarralli by, I think, Ciannciullo [sp?]. light and airy…that amazing texture—so satisfying!
Wow! I cannot believe it has been 7 years since I first responded to this post! It warms my heart every time a new comment comes in. I agree that nothing will ever compare to the original egg biscuits. I have moved on from the Clemente taralli to a new brand, Cianciullo egg taralli. I originally found them in an Italian specialty store, but have since been able to order them on Amazon. They come in sweet (sugar glazed) and plain. You need to get the large ones, not the minis. The texture is close to our beloved egg biscuits, but probably is dependent on the freshness.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll give them a try! ❤
Love those egg biscuits. Personally, I don’t think taralli have anything in common with them. Totally different taste and texture. Stella D’Oro went out of business in 2009 after the workers went on strike. The business was bought by Lance (they make those peanut butter and cheese crackers) and was relocated to non-union facilities in Ohio and North Carolina, I believe. I miss the apricot/peach cookies as well. I think they were sugar free and I can’t find the sesame biscuits either. I noticed soy flour in the ingredients of their cookies and was wondering if that is why they don’t taste like they used to. Also, one Christmas, my mom was in a rush to make struffoli and bought several bags of Stella D’Oro (I can’t remember what they named them, but I don’t think it was struffoli). I guess they are discontinued, too. They weren’t like homemade; they were more light and airy. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
Thanks for the background!
You’re welcome. Wishing you a yours a Happy and healthy Christmas and New Year. I was looking at the taralli in the picture of Graziella and they closely resemble the Stella D’Oro version. I always thought of taralli as the little hard, crunchy biscuits. I tried the recipe link by Lidia, sadly, it is no longer active. Coincidentally, our family watched her Home for the Holidays special last night via YouTube. It was enjoyable for anyone interested. Also, we found a recipe that people attest to being like the Stella D’Oro version. We will be trying to make them this week during break. Rosella and our family come from the same area in Brooklyn. Cheers to all! 🥂
Grazie! If you have success without new recipe, please let me know where I can find it.
Here is Rosella’s Nonna’s recipe for plain Taralli Baresi.
The links to Rosella’s YouTube recipes are in my comments below. Her grandmother makes both the plain and glazed. Let me know if you see them. 🎄
I believe they had a plain version and a glazed version. Maybe my memory is wrong. Looking at the picture of the bag made by Clemente, and the ones in the bag resemble the Stella D’Oro, but the taralli on the plate do not.