Christmas isn't Christmas without dessert.  Christmas desserts are part of an age-old tradition that has different regional variants.  In Tuscany, there are Sienese sweets: panforte, ricciarelli and cavallucci.  

Of these, panforte, the Milanese panettone and the Veronese pandoro, can be found on the table of every Italian home.  Desserts that are less well known that are also part of the Tuscan Christmas tradition include: the nearly forgotten Florentine cassata, the sfratti di Pigliano and the Versiglian befanini.

Of all of the Sienese Christmas desserts, panforte has the longest history.  People say that it has aphrodesiac properties and that it has as many ingredients as there are contrade in Siena, seventeen.  The contemporary recipe is the result of a gradual transformation: from a primitive apple bread - a focaccia made of wheat flour, honey and fruit - to spiced bread or panes pepatos, prepared with spices.  

The spices were first imported from the Orient in the second half of the 12th century.  The panpepato of the spice traders and the pharmacists of the day was so in demand that the Sienese dessert industry has its roots in ancient Sienese pharmacies, such as Parenti, Sapori and Pepi.  

The recipe for panforte did not undergo any changes until 1879 when, in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy who was visiting Siena for the August Palio, Enrico Righi, the owner of the Panforte Parenti store, created the margherita panforte, which had a sweeter flavour, was less spiced, and was covered with a veil of sugar.     

The Sienese ricciarelli instead come from marzapan, a sweet with a sugar and almond base, which was widespread in Siena from the begining of the 15th century.  Histories of the time record the existence of regular and small sized marzapan - square biscuits made from the paste - on the tables of the most sumptuous Italian banquets.  Begining in 1800, the small marzapan biscuits started be called ricciarelli,  and were in the shape of diamonds.  

Certainly, the ricciarelli, like the panforte, was made for an elite public, as at the time, sugar was very costly and rare.  On the renaissance table, next to the ricciarelli, were Sienese "berriquocoli", desserts that later became today's cavallucci.  They are white, irregularly shaped, and have nuts, aniseed and candied fruits.  They are delicious dunked in red whine.  

Finally, of the Tuscan Christmas desserts, it is worth remembering the sfratti di Pitigliano.  The curious shape of a baton - a thin pastry filled with honey, orange rind, nuts, and anisette made with muscat seeds - comes from the instrument that, in 1600, the Grand Duke's men used to knock on the doors of the Jews in Pitigliano to evict them from their homes.