Drinking coffee and tea ALWAYS calls for cookies. Personally, my espresso usually screams CANTUCCINI! Cantuccini, also known as Biscotti, are those famous Italian cookies made of almonds. They’re crunchy, dry, nutty and perfect to dip in your coffee or liquor.
Cantuccini’s prominent quality is their crispness. Double bake for that extra crunch. These pretty cookies are easy to make, the dough is straightforward. Simply bake them in the form of a log, then cut into slices and bake again. To make them even more indulgent, I added an extra topping of chocolate glaze and chopped pistachios. But these are also suuuper tasty on their own.
Even though the original recipe features almonds, you can replace them with other nuts like hazelnuts or walnuts. I added a small amount of pistachios in the dough, but I like to also use most of the almonds the recipe calls for because they are extra hard and add to the crispyness.
If you don’t add the chocolate topping, you can keep these cantuccini in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks. If they get soft, just dry them out again by putting them on a baking tray in a 160° Celsius (320° Fahrenheit), preheated oven for a few minutes. Now take a break, have your coffee or tea, and enjoy these delicious little cookies.
CANTUCCINI – ITALIAN ALMOND BISCUITS
INGREDIENTS
Dough
- 60 g butter melted
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 180 g white sugar
- 2 pinches of salt
- 2 pinches of vanilla sugar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 2 tbsp. grated lemon zest 1 lemon
- 3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 8 drops bitter almond extract
- 130 g peeled almonds
- 50 g peeled pistachios
Glaze
- 120 g dark chocolate melted
- 100 g peeled pistachios roughly chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
Dough
- In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients up to and including the bitter almond extract with a spatula and form a dough. Then ddd all the almonds and pistachios and mix them in by hand.
- Divide the dough into two equal parts and form two rolls of approx. 5 cm (2 inch) in diameter, wrap in foil wrap, and let chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200° Celsius (392° Fahrenheit), lining a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Place the dough rolls on the baking tray and bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Take them out of the oven and let them cool completely on a baking grate.
- Cut the dough rolls into oblique slices, approx. 1 cm (2.5 inch) thick. Place the slices back on the baking tray and bake in the preheated oven at 200° Celsius (392° Fahrenheit) for about 10 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven, and let them cool on a baking grate.
Glaze
- Slowly melt the chocolate over a water bath, dip the cantuccini in it and immediately sprinkle with the chopped pistachios. Let them dry on the baking grate.
