Crescentine are small bread rolls made in Tuscany, Italy.
The dough is made from flour, water, salt and yeast. Some recipes enrich it with milk and / or eggs.
The dough is rolled out 1/4 inch (1/2 cm) thick. Classically, in Florence, the dough is cut into diamond shapes, then deep fried.
It comes out light and puffy,
Crescentine are often used to make sandwiches. The sandwich fillings include ham, salami or cheese, or Pesto Modenese.
History Notes
Frying the bread rolls meant having access to an oven wasn’t necessary.
Language Notes
Crescentine are sometimes confused with “tigelle” made in Emiglia-Romagna, because an alternative name for tigelle is crescentine, but they are actually two very different breads.
The singular is “crescentina.”