Italian biscotti cookies have a very long history, and it is not surprising that the authentic recipe has acquired a huge number of variations. Only one thing is certainly taken from the classics - the form and technology of preparation. “Baton” biscotti is traditionally baked twice and, if in the traditional recipe almonds could be included in the dough as an additive, then the modern classic allows mixes of dough with other nuts, dried fruits and chocolate.

How Italians cook biscotti - a classic recipe

Ingredients:

• flour - 280 g;
• baking powder - 6 g;
• sugar - 140 g;
• eggs - 2 pcs.;
• Amaretto - 20 ml;
• a glass of whole almonds;
• butter - 50 g.

Cooking

Before making biscotti, set the oven temperature to 160 degrees. While the oven reaches the required temperature, prepare a mixture of dry ingredients by sifting flour with baking powder into a bowl and adding salt. Separately, beat the eggs with a mixer until a white, airy and foamy mass is formed, into it, without stopping the device, we begin to add sugar, pour in Amaretto and melted, and then cooled butter. When the liquids are combined, pour the flour mixture into them and knead a thick, non-sticky dough. In the process of kneading, add almonds so that they are evenly distributed in the dough. We divide the resulting dough in half and roll it into two bundles, similar in shape to a loaf (20x6.5 cm). We put the loaves in the oven for half an hour, then remove, cool slightly and cut into slices 3-3.5 cm thick. Put the slices on the same parchment and bake at the same temperature, a similar period of time, not forgetting to turn the cookies over to the other side after 10 -15 minutes.

How to bake Italian biscotti with olive oil?

Ingredients:

• flour - 280 g;
• - 30 g;
• baking powder - 6 g;
• sugar - 140 g;
• zest of 1 orange and lemon;
• olive oil - 90 ml;
• eggs - 3 pcs.

Cooking

After passing the flour through a sieve, mix it with polenta and baking powder, and then add sugar to them. Having combined the dry ingredients with each other, add citrus zest to them and repeat the kneading procedure again.

Beat two whole eggs and one yolk with olive oil, and then pour in the liquids to the dry ingredients of the cookies. At the same stage, you are free to add any additives to the biscotti, from chocolate chips to dried berries.

Leave the finished dough for 20 minutes in the refrigerator, divide in half and roll into two loaves, each of which is subsequently baked, brushed with the remaining egg white, for 25 minutes at 180 degrees. Cut the loaves into slices and repeat baking already at 150 degrees for another half hour.

Ingredients:

Cooking

After heating the oven to 170 degrees, we proceed to the standard procedure - mixing the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa and soda. A pinch of salt will not be superfluous in this mix.

In another bowl, also carefully beat the eggs with sugar. We introduce liquids to the flour mixture and add chocolate chips with hazelnuts. Divide the finished dough in half, roll the halves into sticks of equal length and diameter, and then send to bake for 25 minutes. Let the dough bars cool for 15 minutes, cut into portions and bake again for 15-20 minutes, while not forgetting to turn the cookies over to the other side so that they brown as evenly as possible.

In the company of cooled biscotti, in addition to the standard addition like a cup of coffee or a glass of table wine, ice cream, salted caramel or.

Italian cookies are collectively called biscotti, a name tourists apply to almost all small pastries in Italy. It was originally invented 2000 years ago. The Roman legion fell in love with it for its ability to remain tasty for a long time - it is stored for more than 3 months. During the long campaigns of conquest, such a delicacy was very much appreciated. They say that even the famous navigator Columbus took biscotti on his travels, and together with them he discovered America.

And sea trips and land operations of that time could not do without biscotti - since it was, in fact, the only way to keep bread for a long time.

Before the next trip, delicious croutons were prepared in advance - about 3-5 months in advance and baked out of 4 times at regular intervals. During this time, the biscotti dried out completely and thanks to this they were stored for such a long time. After such manipulations, they were not afraid of frost, rain, mold or heat. It became known that sailors in Spain in the middle of the 14th century received 400 grams of biscotti and beer to soak them.

The name itself consists of cookies from two words "Bi" - which means double, "Scotty" - pastries. Such cookies are baked twice, which makes them very hard and brittle at the same time. Biscotti has a dense texture. It is served in Italy with dessert and red wine, in America and England with tea, cocoa, milk or juice, as well as with hot chocolate. Delicious croutons are dipped into drinks to make them softer. A savory version is served with soups or broths.

While a variety of biscotti - cantucci is more tender, breaks more easily and has a richer filling - most often these are any nuts (usually almonds), raisins, dried fruits. More butter and sugar are added to cantucci. This, one might say, is a dessert version of traditional Italian pastries.

Biscotti - recipe with photo step by step

A step-by-step recipe will help you prepare delicious Italian croutons according to a traditional recipe, as Italians cook. The preparation is not difficult at all, but the dough comes out sticky and rather difficult to work with, so it is worth preparing all the ingredients and the baking dish in advance. A regular baking sheet is suitable as a form.

Ingredients:

• flour - 300-320 gr.;
• sugar - 150 gr.;
• butter - 80-100 gr.;
• eggs - 2 pcs.;
• vanilla sugar - 1-2 packets;
• baking powder - 1 tsp (not recommended to replace with soda);
• salt - a pinch;
• almonds - 160-180 gr.;
• raisins - 80-120 gr.;
• refined oil 1 tbsp.

How to cook biscotti

1. First of all, let's deal with nuts - almonds have a very dense skin, which is very bitter. There are two ways to get rid of it - either pour boiling water over it, and after 5-10 minutes, with little effort, the skin can be peeled off with a knife. And you can fill the nuts with water the night before and leave them overnight - so the skin will come off much easier.
2. For this baking, the nuts are not toasted, so just chop them with a knife. We need medium-sized pieces, not nut crumbs.
   
3. Stir the eggs a little, pour in a mixture of regular sugar and vanilla. The last ingredient can be replaced with vanilla, essence, or not added at all.
   
4. We work with a vechik, gradually turning the eggs into a dense and elastic mass.
   
5. Butter we need very soft, plastic. You need to get it out of the freezer in advance. Add oil.
   
6. We grind the mass until completely homogeneous with a spatula or whisk, making sure that there are no lumps.
   
7. Sift the flour, so the biscotti will be softer and more crumbly. Knead thick dough with flour.
   
8. Add nuts, soaked and dried raisins. We work with our hands to evenly distribute large pieces over the dough.
   
9. We grease our hands with vegetable oil. We form two sausages from the dough, approximately 4-5 cm in diameter and equal to the length of the baking sheet.
   
10. We cover the baking sheet with baking paper and lay out the blanks.
11. We put in a hot oven and bake until light golden brown for 30 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees.
12. Remove sausages and cool completely.
    
13. Cut into slices 1 cm thick slightly diagonally. Spread on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake again until browned on the edges.
    
    
14. Let it cool completely again and put the pastries into beautiful jars. You can take a bottle of wine and boldly go to visit friends and make a little culinary trip to Italy with them.
    

Cantucci with walnuts

A sweeter and richer variety of biscotti with nuts and other additives is called cantucci. Today we will prepare these cookies with walnuts, which are more familiar to us. An excellent addition to hot drinks is not difficult to prepare, but it is stored for a very long time, although I can’t check it, the entire portion flies away in 2-3 days.

To prepare cantucci we need:

• flour - 300 gr.;
• sugar (small is better) - 150g;
• eggs - 4 pcs;
• salt - 0.5 tsp,
• baking powder - 1 tsp;
• vanilla essence 1 tsp or 2 packs of vanilla sugar
• walnut - 150 gr.;
• dark raisins or any dried fruit - 100g.

How to make kantuchii

1. Combine dry ingredients: sifted flour, salt, baking powder, sugar. Baking powder cannot be replaced with soda, since the dough contains no acidic ingredients that would extinguish it, which means that it will then be felt in the finished cookie.
   
2. Cool the eggs and separate the protein from the yolk of one egg. We put the protein in the refrigerator.
   
3. We clean the nuts and put them in the oven so that they are slightly fried. The temperature should be around 200-220°C. Be sure to keep an eye on them so they don't burn! Take out to cool down a bit. Then we chop with a knife.
   
   
   
4. In order for the nuts to be evenly distributed, add them to the flour. We put dried fruits (I have it, by the way, dried cherries).
   
5. Pour the eggs (3 whole and 1 yolk) into the dry mixture and knead with your hands. It makes a very stiff dough. So it is necessary. If suddenly you have a soft dough, add flour.
   
   
6. We divide it into three parts and make plump sausages, about 5 cm wide, slightly flattened. Prepare a baking sheet - line it with baking paper, grease with oil, sprinkle lightly with flour. We spread the future cantucci at a distance from each other. Beat the reserved egg white and brush the dough with a pastry brush.
   
7. We send to bake at a temperature of 180 ° C for 35-45 minutes, until a “dry stick” (pierce the dough with a toothpick, if dry, the pastries are ready).
   
8. Cool completely and cut with a very sharp knife.
   
9. Spread out and bake again until crispy.
   

Biscuit additive options

You can add a variety of ingredients, namely:

• dried fruits (raisins, cranberries, prunes, dried pineapple, papaya, dried apricots);
• nuts (walnuts, pine nuts, almonds, peanuts, unsalted pistachios);
• seeds (sunflower, pumpkin seeds, white and black sesame seeds);
• pieces of chocolate;
• pieces of fruit (figs, dates).

For flavor, not only vanilla is added, but also cinnamon, citrus zest, cocoa, melted chocolate.

1. Do not cut too thinly - the thickness of the slice is 1-1.5 cm. Thinner slices break when served, and thick ones are very hard.
2. Follow the cut. The thickness of the cookies should be the same. Otherwise, in the oven, the thin will begin to burn, while the thick will remain too soft.
3. For variety, you can cover part or all of the cookies with chocolate.

Whatever ingredients are used for dry Italian cookies, the classic biscotti recipe remains the same. The secret lies in double baking, which makes the dessert light and crispy. It is prepared in the same way as ordinary crackers.

First, a loaf is formed from a special dough and baked in the oven. Then cut the finished product into slices and bake them again. But unlike biscotti crackers, Italians do not gnaw, but dip them in wine, coffee or tea. Cookies soak very quickly, become tender, fragrant and literally melt in your mouth. Due to the fact that it is perfectly soaked, it is sometimes used to make tiramisu dessert.

For the first time, biscotti is mentioned in documents dating back to the 13th century. Later sources say that Christopher Columbus willingly took it on voyages, since this pastry is very satisfying and does not spoil for a long time.

Previously, only the following products were used for cookies:

• flour - 250 g;
• sugar - 125 g;
• soda - 1 tsp;
• salt - on the tip of a knife;
• eggs - 2 pcs.;
• almonds - 1 cup;
• butter - 50 g;
• Amaretto liqueur - 1 tbsp. l.

Sift flour, mix in a bowl with soda and salt. Melt the butter and wait until it cools down. Beat the eggs well, preferably with a mixer. Then, without stopping beating, gradually add sugar, pour in liquor and melted butter. Remove the mixer, add flour and knead a thick dough.

You need to knead it until it becomes plastic. After that, add the almonds to the bowl. Knead the dough again. Almonds will be much tastier if they are slightly dried in the oven. They are placed in the dough either whole or pre-cut in half.

To make the cookies especially crumbly, a part of the almonds, about 50 g, needs to be ground in a coffee grinder.

The oven must be preheated to 160°C. Give the dough an oblong shape resembling an ordinary loaf of about the same diameter. Place it on a greased baking sheet (if the oven is small, you can form two products).

Put the baguette in the oven and bake until golden brown. This will take approximately half an hour. Then remove the workpiece and cool. To do this, it is desirable to put it on the grill. Then cut with a sharp knife into slices 1-1.5 cm thick and put them on a sheet covered with parchment.

Send the baking sheet to the oven for another 20-30 minutes, but already at a temperature of 150 ° C. Turn the slices over after 10 minutes to dry evenly. When they are browned, cool on a wire rack. Before serving, biscotti can be poured with melted chocolate or condensed milk.

Classic fillers: honey, nuts and chocolate

Honey gives a special flavor to any pastry, so many pastry chefs add it to biscotti. Almonds can be replaced with other nuts, such as hazelnuts or peanuts. Thanks to chocolate, the products will acquire a rich brown color.

For chocolate chip cookies, you need to take the following products:

• flour - 1.5 cups;
• sugar - 1 glass;
• large eggs - 3 pcs.;
• soda - 1 tsp;
• salt - on the tip of a knife;
• peeled hazelnuts - 2/3 cup;
• chocolate chip - 2/3 cup

Beat eggs with sugar for 5 minutes. Then pour them into a bowl with sifted flour, which before that should be mixed with soda and salt. Knead the dough, then pour the chocolate chips and hazelnuts into it. Gently knead for another 2-3 minutes so that the fillings are evenly distributed over the dough.

However, you don’t need to get too carried away, as the chocolate chips will begin to melt from the heat of your hands. Divide the dough into 2 parts, form small loaves and bake them in the oven.

Baking with honey is prepared as follows. First you need to separate 2 egg whites and beat them together with 3 tbsp. l. sugar into a strong foam. Then, without turning off the mixer, gradually add half a glass of sifted flour and 100 g of almonds cut into small pieces. In biscotti, if the recipe is classic, it is recommended to add 0.5 tsp. ground allspice.

The dough should be baked at 180°C in rectangular molds, which are previously oiled and lined with baking paper. When a crust appears on the products, the molds must be removed from the oven and cooled.

Then remove the loaves from the molds, wrap in foil and let rest for several hours. After that, cut and dry in the oven for 20-25 minutes, not forgetting to turn over.

Cookies with fruit fillings

Only dried fruits are put into the dough. Large dried apricots, prunes or dates should be cut into pieces beforehand. Dried berries - raisins, dried cranberries or lingonberries - can be used whole. However, first you need to make sure that there are no bones left in them. In some recipes, dried fruits require pre-steam in boiling water or soak in alcohol.

This cookie can be made from a relatively small number of ingredients:

• flour - 1 cup;
• raisins, dried cranberries and almonds - 50 g each;
• eggs - 2 pcs.;
• sugar - 150 g;
• vanilla sugar - 1 tsp;
• baking powder - 1 tsp;
• salt - 0.5 tsp

Mix the sifted flour with salt and baking powder, add eggs beaten with sugar. Knead the dough, gradually adding dried fruits and almonds. Shape it into 2 loaves and place in an oven preheated to 150 ° C for 30-40 minutes.

It is necessary to ensure that the bread remains golden cream, and not baked to brown.

Then cool them on a wire rack and cut obliquely into slices no more than 1 cm thick. Dry the cookies in the oven for another half an hour, but before that, reduce the temperature to 130 ° C.

To prepare the next treat, you need to prepare half a glass of oatmeal, a ripe banana, 75 g of pitted dates and 50 g of cashews. Cut the dates, dry the nuts a little in the oven and crush them. Cut bananas into rings and mash with a fork.

Add to them 1 egg and 1 tbsp. l. Sahara. Mix the mass, beat lightly with a whisk or mixer. Pour the sifted flour into it, combined with 1 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. vanilla sugar. Knead the dough, adding dates and cashews to it. It will turn out quite sticky, so you need to moisten your hands with water to form the loaf.

Bake the product for 20-25 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 ° C. When it has cooled, cut into slices 1-1.5 cm thick and re-bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes on both sides.

Festive pastries should be not only tasty, but also beautiful, so you will have to tinker with them a little longer. Cool the finished products, cut and bake again. Chocolate chip cookies go well not only with wine and coffee, but also with ice cream. If you do not like a dessert that is too dark, dark chocolate in the recipe can be replaced with white.

First you need to stock up on products:

• flour - 3 cups;
• butter - 70-75 g;
• sugar - 100 g;
• water - half a glass;
• egg yolk - 1 pc.;
• vegetable oil (preferably olive oil) - 1 tbsp. l.;
• light rum - 1 tbsp. l.;
• orange peel - 2 tbsp. l.;
• orange extract - 2-3 drops;
• salt is on the tip of a knife.

In addition, you will need 1 egg and 2 tbsp. l. melted butter to brush the cookies. The oil used for the dough does not need to be heated. It should stand in a warm place until it becomes soft. Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle, into which to place all the other products indicated in the recipe.

Knead the dough until it is no longer sticky. Then form a long loaf out of it, wrap in cling film and leave in a cold place for 2 hours.

The dough for this type of biscotti should be cut into slices before baking. Preheat the oven to 180°C, grease a baking sheet with butter. Prick each cookie in several places with a fork, brush with beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes. During this time, the products will acquire a rich golden color.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to cool slightly (but no more than 5 minutes). Then grease the still warm slices with melted butter and place in the oven for 5-6 minutes. After that, cool the delicacy on the wire rack. From above, you can draw patterns with melted white and dark chocolate, sprinkle with crushed nuts.

A popular Italian confection is dry biscuits with the common name biscotti. Oblong and slightly curved slices of sliced ​​​​biscuits, literally - "twice-baked" cookies. Biscotto, biscotto - this is the name of cookies in Italy.

In the region of Tuscany, in Florence, a special type of this cookie is baked - cantucci (cantuccini). The traditional recipe for this cookie does not contain fat, baking powder, yeast. Therefore, the cookies turn out dry, which is important. The original recipe for these cookies uses only almonds, although various nuts, candied fruits, candied fruits and raisins are usually added. In addition, the finished cookies are dipped in chocolate and, after it hardens, the product is stored for a very long time.

In the world, this type of cookie is known as biscotti di Prato. Served with drinks - coffee or tea, but more often with sweet wine or. In the East, similar macaroons are baked -. This is a special very dry pastry in the form of small discs, made from almond dough with oriental spices, unusually fragrant and spicy.

In Italy, almost any double-baked biscuit is called this, although only macaroons have their own name - cantucci. This culinary masterpiece has an ancient history. Back in the days of the Roman Empire, dry cookies were baked for hiking - they can be stored for a very long time and not deteriorate. In ancient handwritten texts, there are recipes for similar cookies, and only in the middle of the 19th century, the Italian Antonio Mattei, a confectioner from Prato, published a recipe that became “classic”.

The essence of the cooking process is a baked thin "baguette" of dough, still hot, cut into narrow strips, and re-placed in the oven for final drying. After that, the cookies can be stored for several months.

Modern versions of cookies are prepared according to different, do not resemble each other, recipes. Although the mass production of cookies is closer to almond cantucci. Modern homemade cookies, in addition to almonds, usually contain various nuts (hazelnuts, peanuts and pine nuts). As well as spices - anise, ginger or cinnamon. In addition, chocolate icing is often found.

We have prepared this amazing pastry using several types of nuts and fruits, without the use of fat and baking powder. Extraordinarily tasty dry biscuits - ideal for tea, coffee or orange juice. For the recipe, special thanks to my daughter Yulia, she has a talent for baking.

Ingredients (20-25 pcs)

• Wheat flour 2.5-3 cups (325 g)
• Eggs 5 pcs
• Sugar 1 cup
• Raisins (pitted) 100 g
• Almonds 100 g
• Hazelnut 100 g
• Dried cranberries 100 g
• Lemon candied fruits 50 g
• Kiwi or pomelo candied fruit 50 g
• Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg taste

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Biscotti. Step by step recipe

1. By and large, it is enough to use only almonds. But for home and family, you always want bright and colorful, carnival and colorful. To hell with the classics! We will bake dry cookies using different nuts and candied fruits. It is advisable, in addition to almonds, to add: hazelnuts, raisins and colorful candied fruits - yellow lemon, red cranberries, green kiwi or pomelo. At your discretion. The composition and amount of additives can vary widely.

   Nuts and Candied Fruits for Amazing Cookies

2. First you need to chop large candied fruits with a knife so that the size of all the pieces is approximately the same as raisins and cranberries. Mix raisins, cranberries and candied fruits in a bowl. Pour boiling water from the kettle for 10 minutes to soften the hard pieces. Then put the mixture in a colander and squeeze lightly. The water must drain completely.

   Mix raisins, cranberries and candied fruits in a bowl, pour boiling water over

3. Prepare cookie dough. Mix the contents of 4 eggs and 1 cup of sugar in a mixer bowl. Beat eggs with sugar until a dense foam forms. Approximately the same as used for cream.

   Mix sugar and eggs

4. Mix spices in a bowl. For such a quantity of ingredients, I advise you to use 0.5 tsp. ground cinnamon and ginger, 1-2 pinches of ground nutmeg. Pour the spice mixture into the beaten eggs and mix again with a mixer.

   Beat eggs with sugar and add spices

5. Sift the flour through a sieve to weed out all the excess and prevent the formation of lumps in the dough. Continuing to mix the beaten eggs with a mixer, add flour. Flour, in the end, you need 2 cups and another full tablespoon. In general, this is approximately 350 gr.

   Add flour and make dough

6. The final dough should not be dense, but not fluid. Something close to very thick honey. If you take the dough in a spoon and lift it, the dough should slowly stretch under its own weight. If the dough is more liquid, you need to add flour - quite a bit to adjust the viscosity.

   The final dough should not be dense

7. Water is already glassed from candied fruits, but, in any case, they are wet. Therefore, in order for the biscotti dough to envelop the candied fruits, add 1 tsp to them. flour and mix. This is guaranteed to ensure the adhesion of the dough with candied fruits.

   Candied fruit mixed with flour

8. Pour candied fruits into the dough, add whole nuts - hazelnuts and almonds. In principle, although many insist on this, it is not worth peeling nuts from the shell. However, as you wish.

   Pour candied fruits into the dough, add whole nuts

9. With a spatula, carefully and thoroughly mix the thick dough with nuts and candied fruit. By the way, mixing requires some effort, since the mixture is very viscous.

   Gently and thoroughly mix the thick dough with a spatula.

10. The finished dough may contain up to half of nuts and candied fruits by volume. In appearance, it is somewhat reminiscent of Olivier salad, abundantly watered with hated mayonnaise.

    The finished dough may contain up to half of nuts and candied fruits

11. Line a suitable size metal baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle with flour. Put the dough on a baking sheet, in a kind of French baguette - for the entire length of the baking sheet.
12. Sprinkling flour on your hands, form with your hands an oblong, similar to a pie. Do not try to make geometrically correct shapes - this is superfluous.

    Lay out the dough on a baking sheet

13. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, generously enough and without skipping sections. This is necessary for greasing before baking. Beat one egg with a fork until smooth. Using a brush, brush the entire surface of the dough with the egg.

    Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour

14. Preheat the oven to 210-220 degrees and put a baking sheet with dough in it. The time of the first stage of baking is about 30 minutes. It is necessary to be guided by the browning of the crust, smeared with an egg - you can not let it burn.

    The time of the first stage of baking is about 30 minutes

15. After the end of the first stage of baking, remove from the oven and, without delay, while the dough is still hot, cut it across into plates 15-20 mm thick.

    Take the cookies out of the oven and cut

16. In fact, cookies can be thicker or thinner, if desired. But it is worth remembering that this is a dry product, and it is necessary that it dry during the second stage of baking.

    

Italian biscotto (Biscotto) or biscotti (more often they are spoken of in the plural) is known, without exaggeration, to everyone. It's not easy, it can easily be called a symbol of the vast world of cookies. True, outside of Italy, including in our country, the term biscotti is not used quite correctly. Italians use it to refer to all types of dry, crispy pastries in various shapes, sizes and flavors. We mean only one variety, which in the republic is called cantuccini (cantuccini), cantucci (cantucci) or biscotti from Prato (Biscotti di Prato).

Therefore, the question that some people have, “what is the difference between biscotti and cantucci?”, in their homeland will seem ridiculous. Cantucci is a variant of biscotti, and in our understanding, it is generally the same pastry.

The cantucci recipe appeared relatively recently - in, presumably in 1691 in Prato. And biscotti, like dry and long-stored pastries, were born back in. They were made for soldiers going on long marches. Unleavened cakes, flavored with almonds, after cooking, were baked again to remove residual moisture. Hence the name Biscotti, which means "twice-baked". The shelf life of such a delicacy was so long that the philosopher Pliny the Elder (Plinius Maior) once boasted that they would be edible for several centuries. When the Roman Empire collapsed, biscuits disappeared with it until the Renaissance period.

Tuscan bakers have filled the once insipid bun with new flavors. They added aniseed vodka, lemon, various spices to the dough. Almonds entered the composition of cookies later, and then other nuts and dried fruits began to be used, as well as raisins, figs, dates and quince. The most daring chefs added chocolate pieces to the taste of biscotti.

In the 19th century, Antonio Mattei (pastry chef from Prato) put an end to the search for the best version of cantucci, developing a recipe that has become a classic. He has received many awards at exhibitions in Italy and abroad. He received special appreciation at the world exhibition in Paris in 1867. His shop "Mattonella" still exists today in Prato and is considered the place of "keeping the tradition of cantucci".

Description

Biscotti have a traditional elongated shape, obtained by cutting the baked dough diagonally. The surface of the cookies is golden with inclusions of whole almonds. The length can be different, but, as a rule, does not exceed 10 cm.

Cantucci dough is made from flour, sugar, eggs, almonds and butter. Sometimes sugar in the recipe is replaced with honey, and butter with olive oil. Unroasted almonds are used in baking. Traditionally, cantucci is served with another Tuscan delicacy, Brutti ma Buoni.

Sometimes under the name "Biscotti di Prato" you can find a not quite classic version. It can be either one of the many versions of cantucci, or a fake of the original variety. The latter is often characterized by the absence of oil and the presence of a large number of flavors.

Recipes

One of the Italian desserts that you can easily prepare is cantucci, a sweet treat with a taste of home comfort. In Italy, it is traditionally accompanied by a glass of Santo wine or served at the end of a meal.

There are many versions of biscotti di Prato. For example, the option with pistachios. But the original recipe for this cookie only includes almonds.

Classical

To make classic cantucci you will need:

• Flour - 400 g;
• Eggs - 3 pcs.;
• Baking powder (baking powder) - 0.5 sachet;
• Sugar - 100 g;
• Almonds - 100 g;
• Salt - a pinch.

To knead the dough, you need to prepare the work surface. Wash and dry a table or large cutting board in advance. We pour a hill of flour on it, at the top of which we make a large depression. We send baking powder, sugar, salt and eggs there. Mix everything thoroughly with your hands. The result is a very elastic, soft mass. If the dough turned out to be tight, then add a little milk, if it is liquid, add a handful of flour. Do you like more delicate pastries? Then add 15 g of melted butter to the mass.

Roast the almonds lightly in a pan or in the oven. The process should only take a few minutes, as the nuts will come to readiness when baked in the dough.

Add the prepared almonds to the resulting mass and mix until the nuts are evenly distributed. Finally, we form long and narrow loaves. Their width does not exceed 3 cm.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and cover the baking sheet with parchment paper, on which we distribute the loaves of dough. We bake for about 20 minutes. As soon as they begin to harden, take out and cut into pieces about 2 cm thick.

Almost ready biscotti di Prato is again sent to the oven, but already for 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool completely. Your cantucci will diversify the daily menu or become a wonderful aperitif for wine on the festive table.

From Yulia Vysotskaya

The famous actress and part-time television chef also did not do without a recipe for Italian biscotti. Her version has additional ingredients.

So, for biscotti from Yulia Vysotskaya you will need:

• Flour - 200 g;
• Sugar - 125 g;
• Lemon - 2 pcs.;
• Eggs - 2 pcs. and separately 1 yolk;
• Almonds - 65 g;
• Butter - 2 tbsp. spoons;
• Pecan nuts - 65 g;
• Baking powder - 0.5 tbsp. spoons;
• Corn or buckwheat flour - 1.5 tbsp. spoons.

First, beat the eggs and yolk with a whisk until the volume doubles. Combine flour with baking powder. Grind part of the nuts into small crumbs. In a deep bowl, mix the prepared ingredients, add the zest and 1 tbsp. a spoonful of lemon juice, melted butter, whole nuts and cornmeal. Knead the dough and form one long and wide loaf about 2 cm high.

Bake in an oven preheated to 150 degrees for about 40 minutes. Cut into slices, which are dried at 180 degrees until the cantucci crust is browned. Let the cake cool down and enjoy biscotti from Yulia Vysotskaya, accompanied by a cup of coffee.

calories

Like other sweet treats, biscotti is a high-calorie product. 100 g of dessert contains about 430 kcal, consisting of:

• Proteins 8.3 g;
• Fats 12.6 g;
• Carbohydrates 70.5 g

Most of the nutritional value is due to the presence of sugar and almonds, so cookies are far from the diet of people who lead a healthy lifestyle, or, conversely, who have problems with being overweight. Although the cholesterol content in cantucci is relatively low - about 17 mg per 100 g.

Even the diet version without butter contains about 400 kcal. Therefore, if you can eat 2-3 cantuchias and stop, then this will be a great option for your body. If your dose of biscotti is a pack of 250 g, then it is better not to store cookies in your pantry.

On this story about the famous cookie came to an end. Without a doubt, homemade baking is second to none. But in order to bring the taste of your biscotti to the ideal, you just need to try the original in his homeland. Hurry to Italy, live boldly, joke soberly and remember: “There is no smoke without fire, and biscotti without a second roast!”

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