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For more than a century the family of Carlo and Corrado Assenza have been behind the marble counter and at work in the maze-like laboratory of the Caffè Sicilia. The brothers are purists and hunt down the highest quality ingredients Sicily has to offer, working to preserve the Sicilian pastry-making tradition. They create pastries from the recipes of Noto’s ex-monastery of Santa Chiara as well as from their own innovative recipes, such as chocolates with carob, chestnut or sweet basil filling, giuggolena (sesame seed, honey and orange zest bar) and herb-infused honey.

The oldest pastry shop in Trapani, run by three generations of the Colicchia family. Their summertime speciality is granita served with an aniseed biscuit; in winter you’ll find the best cannoli in Sicily.

The nuns at the monastery of the Santo Spirito still offer pastries from behind the grate. They may look like something you’ve seen at other shops, but take a bite and taste how special they are. Order ahead for the speciality, “cous cous” (see Abbazia di Santo Spirito).

Maria Grammatico spent many years in the orphanage inside Erice’s cloistered San Carlo monastery, learning the nuns’ centuries-old recipes for their dolci , the sale of which provided their keep. The sweets are the opposite of monastic life: colourful and luxurious – try sospiri (sighs), cuore (hearts) and cuscinetti (little pillows).

Elvira Roccasalva has a passion for traditional recipes, faithfully reproducing by hand the sweets formerly made by Modica’s cloistered nuns. She also uses the best-quality ingredients from the region to create her own recipes: try the carato , made with carob flour, raisins and almonds.

Fig-filled nucatoli and citrus and honey torrone are displayed in a small, elegant shop located off Modica’s Corso. Their chocolate is still made using the ancient Aztec method of working the cocoa with sugar and spices.

This unassuming family-owned shop has the most excessively creamy gelato in Sicily. The bow-tied staff proudly offer rows and rows of traditional and seasonal flavours served up in cones, cups and brioches. In summer it is open 24 hours a day.

A classic pastry shop and bar offering a wide range of sweets, biscuits, breads, gelato and arancini (see Arancini). Sit in the elegant tearoom or on the pedestrianized street.

Since 1880 the Russo family has been producing Catanese pastries using the finest of local ingredients, including pistachios, almonds, oranges and honey.

The Caviezel family came to Catania from Switzerland in 1914 to make Swiss pastries. Now their recipes have been Sicilianized, although French buttercream still features in their pastries.