How to cook biscotti. Italian biscotti cookies. Cookies with fruit fillings

20.03.2022

Biscotti is an Italian pastry, somewhat similar to our “drying”. Subtle Italian taste, but how could it be different for the inhabitants of southern countries?!

Classic biscotti contains almonds. The use of almond treats dates back to ancient Rome, where almond sweets were originally served at the feasts of the Roman aristocracy. Over time, the delicacy became available to the more democratic circles of the empire. Only as a result, sweets gradually, changing the composition, turned into cheaper pastries based on almonds. The cheapest biscotti looked like biscuits and, after baking, remained in the oven for a long time to dry. Such cookies were used by Roman legionnaires as food during the march. And to make it softer, soak it in sweet water with lemon. Later, the cookies were used by soldiers and sailors, and in the case of Christopher Columbus' Spanish Armada, they were soaked in beer.

The composition of the classic biscotti includes only flour, eggs, almonds and Italian pine nuts - pinoli. Nowadays, instead of almonds, pistachios, dry figs, and chocolate have been introduced into the composition of cookies. But in this case, instead of the traditional wine Vin Santo, it is necessary to choose another type of drink in pair with the liver. And some confectioners add cow butter, yeast, honey to the dough, which makes the cookies softer, but changes their taste.

In general, such dry cookies are a good option for quick baking. You get cookies with which you do not have to mess around for a long time, knead and roll out the dough. Also, this pastry is oil-free, which makes it easy and accessible for children and adults, even those who are on a diet.

Biscotti with lemon and nuts

This biscotti recipe contains nuts, you can use any nuts you have on hand. Lemon zest adds a subtle aroma and noticeable citrus flavor. These cookies will be a great addition to your morning cup of coffee.

step by step recipe with photo

Ingredients:

2 chicken eggs,
180 g wheat flour
150 g powdered sugar,
10 g vanilla sugar
0.5 tsp baking powder
100 g nuts.

Cooking process:

Beat eggs and icing sugar until foamy, about 4-5 minutes. and Simultaneously add vanilla sugar.

Sifting the flour - this will help remove impurities and enrich with oxygen, which will give the dough a lighter and more airy texture.

Add the baking powder and lemon zest to the flour. When rubbing the zest, avoid getting a white layer into the dough, it will add bitterness to the pastries.

Finely chop the nuts and add to the dough, mix well until smooth. The biscotti dough should be pretty cool.

We preheat the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

We divide the dough into two parts, form a log from each and put it on a baking sheet. No need to oil the parchment!

Bake at 180 degrees in the oven for about 20 minutes. We take out the hot “sticks”, let it cool a little. And then cut into slices about 1 cm wide.

Put on a baking sheet and bake for another 15 minutes, the biscotti should be well browned. Turn over the Italian cookies a couple of times during baking.

Serve dry cookies for tea completely cooled.

Bon appetit!

I would cook Italian biscotti cookies or croutons just because of the name, and the fact that it can be stored for two weeks makes it even more interesting for biscotti (a classic recipe) to appear on the blog. These delicious cookies are also called cantucci or cantuccini (which means baked twice in the oven). They are baked with nuts, which in itself is even tastier.

I want to say that I somehow looked after him for a long time, and I saw the presentation of the recipe from Yulia Vysotskaya in Italy about him, but it always seemed to me that almond flour should be used for it. And that stopped me. But no, the most common flour is needed. And even the products are all the most affordable: you don’t even need to go to the store again. Provided you have nuts.

That's where it all started for this recipe this time around. It so happened that happiness came to me: I was presented with a huge package of hazelnuts and my mother also presented me with walnuts. So, it was a sin to eat them just like that, without making such biscotti cookies with nuts.

So, biscotti and cantucci from Italian hostesses:

Ingredients

150 g different nuts
400 g sifted wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
200 g sugar
2 hrs. vanilla sugar
4 raw chicken eggs
2 tablespoons water
1 tsp. salt
1 st. lies. butter

How to cook biscotti

First you need to separate the protein from the yolk in one egg. Set the protein aside (you can put it in the refrigerator to cool, as we will need to beat it later). And three eggs and one more yolk mix vigorously with a fork until smooth, adding two tablespoons of cold water.

In a separate deep bowl, mix flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, baking powder.

Take nuts (here, any nuts that you like or that you have will do). I, I already wrote, had hazelnuts and walnuts. The classic biscotti recipe involves the use of almonds. If you do with almonds, then you will need to peel it from the skin, and this is a whole procedure. in this recipe.

So, the nuts need to be chopped into large pieces: I literally cut the hazelnuts in half and chopped the walnuts too.

And you can start preparing the dough. To do this, send eggs beaten with water into a container with flour and sugar, and knead the dough. You need to knead for a long time, as the dough turns out to be steep and stubborn. But that's exactly what we need. If it doesn’t knead at all, then you can add a spoonful of cold water, and things will go more fun.

When the dough is already this kind, you can add pieces of nuts, and mix so that they are evenly distributed over the dough.

At this stage, I remembered a cartoon about how the dough ran away, and while running through the forest, it collected a lot of nuts and berries on itself ... By the way, about berries. In biscotti, you can add a handful of dried cranberries or cherries (then they will be even more attractive in the context) or put raisins. I didn't have either, and it worked out well too.

From each kolobok make a sausage, rolling it out with your hands, sprinkling the surface with flour. The length of the sausage should not exceed the width of the baking sheet on which you are going to bake our cookies.

It turns out three of these sausages.

They need to be placed on a baking sheet greased with butter and sprinkled with flour. Sausages should not lie tightly, there should be a distance of 5-6 cm between them.

And on top, grease with protein whipped with one teaspoon of salt.

Then the greased sausages are sent to an oven heated to 180 degrees, where they need to be baked for half an hour. We check readiness with a match or a toothpick. If you are not sure about readiness, leave to bake for another 5-10 minutes.

After you take them out of the oven, they turn out so beautiful and ruddy.

They need to be allowed to cool so that it is convenient to cut.

Cut diagonally so that each crouton is about 1 centimeter thick. Need a sharp knife! Cut and put back on the same baking sheet. It turns out here is such a huge baking sheet with nut cookies.

And now we have to send these croutons back to the oven for at least ten minutes. There they will dry out, and after they cool down, they will become completely dry and hard. This is exactly what we need.

I read that biscotti is also called cantuccini precisely because they are sent to the oven a second time. Both names are better than each other. And I like cantuccini even more. And it turns out two in one.

After they have cooled, the crackers can be folded into a glass jar or just a beautiful box, as I did. Italians serve these cookies with sweet dessert wine or coffee. It is assumed that these crackers are dipped in wine and eaten like that.

It turns out very tasty. I haven’t tried it with wine yet, but with coffee and especially milk (I already came up with this myself), it comes out surprisingly tasty.

Yummy cookies.

Biscotti is a traditional Italian cookie. The name is formed from two roots: bi is "two", and "scottare" is an oven, i.e. this confectionery is baked twice... First baked, and then also dried. Excellent, tasty and long-lasting pastries for tea, coffee, cocoa, milk, i.e. for almost any drink.

It is believed that classic biscotti is almond, and in general, the filling in biscotti can be very different: any nuts, various dried fruits, natural flavors (coffee, zest, vanilla, cocoa ...), etc. In various sources, I came across both lubricating the dough before baking biscotti with protein and yolk. Chose the option - protein!

Prepare the ingredients according to the list:

Rinse raisins and soak in water.

Mix one egg and the yolk of the second egg with a fork. Leave the second protein to lubricate the dough before baking the blanks.

Combine flour, sugar and baking powder, mix.

Add eggs, ice water and knead the dough.

The dough will turn out pretty cool.

If almonds or other nuts are not toasted, then fry, or rather, dry them in a pan until browned. In my version, the purchased almonds were already prepared. Add nuts to the dough. Drain the liquid from the raisins, dry them, sprinkle with flour and also add to the dough.

Mix the filling evenly with the dough.

Shape the dough into two "sausages" with a diameter of about four cm, place them on a greased baking sheet, flatten a little and grease the surface with the stirred protein.

Place the blanks in an oven preheated to 175-180 degrees for half an hour.

Cool the biscotti blanks and then cut into slices about 1 cm thick. Lay again on a baking sheet and place in the oven until browned, this is about 10-15 minutes.

Italian biscotti cookies, fragrant and tasty, are ready. I should note that this is a hard cookie, it is usually dipped in the drinks with which it is served, or you can just nibble ...))

Biscotti can be stored for quite a long time in boxes or in jars without access to moisture.

Happy tea!

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

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.
For this baking, the nuts are not toasted, so just chop them with a knife. We need medium-sized pieces, not nut crumbs.
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.
We work with a vechik, gradually turning the eggs into a dense and elastic mass.
Butter we need very soft, plastic. You need to get it out of the freezer in advance. Add oil.
We grind the mass until completely homogeneous with a spatula or whisk, making sure that there are no lumps.
Sift the flour, so the biscotti will be softer and more crumbly. Knead thick dough with flour.
Add nuts, soaked and dried raisins. We work with our hands to evenly distribute large pieces over the dough.
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.
We cover the baking sheet with baking paper and lay out the blanks.
We put in a hot oven and bake until light golden brown for 30 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees.
Remove sausages and cool completely.
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.
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 take a short 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

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 cookies.
Cool the eggs and separate the protein from the yolk of one egg. We put the protein in the refrigerator.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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).
Cool completely and cut with a very sharp knife.
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.

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.
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.
For variety, you can cover part or all of the cookies with chocolate.

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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