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Crisp Biscuits
(Biscotti croccanti) One pound of flour.
Half a pound granulated sugar. 1/4 lb. sweet almonds, whole and shelled, mixed to a few pine-seeds.
A piece of butter, one and a half ounce.
A pinch of anise-seeds.
Five eggs.
A pinch of salt.
Leave back the almonds and pine-seeds to add them afterward, and mix everything with four eggs, so as to use the fifth if it is necessary to make a soft dough. Divide into four cakes half an inch thick and as large as a hand, place them in a receptacle greased with butter and sprinkled with flour. Glaze the cakes with yolk of eggs.
Bake in the oven, but only as much as will still permit cutting the cakes into slices, which you will do the day after, as the crust will then be softened. Put the slices back in the oven,so that they will be toasted on both sides and you will have the crisp biscuits. 184
A twice-baked almond and anise biscuit of the cantuccini family, made without any chemical leavening — the five eggs are the only lift. The hinge is the first bake: stop while the loaves are still pale and yielding enough to slice cleanly, then rest them overnight before cutting.
- Weights into cupsOne pound of flour is about 3 1/2 cups, half a pound of sugar about 1 cup, and 1 1/2 ounces of butter is 3 tablespoons. Weigh if you can; the dough should be stiff and slightly tacky, not pourable.
- The fifth eggMix with four eggs first and hold the fifth back, as instructed. You may well need only a splash of the last egg, since flours vary in how much liquid they take up — beat it and add it a little at a time.
- Oven temperature, first bakeThe recipe gives no temperature. A moderate oven suits it: try 325–350F for 25–30 minutes, until the loaves are set and lightly coloured but still soft inside. Any browner and the slices will crumble rather than cut.
- Oven temperature, second bakeFor the toasting, use 300F and turn the slices once, 10–15 minutes a side, until dry through and faintly gold. The point is dehydration, not colour.
- Pine-seedsPine nuts, and they scorch faster than almonds. If the loaves are colouring unevenly, the exposed nuts are the reason — the overnight rest and second low bake will finish them.
- "Receptacle"A baking sheet or shallow tin, buttered and floured as directed; parchment does the same job. The four hand-sized loaves need space between them, as they spread.
- Why wait a dayThe crust reabsorbs moisture from the crumb overnight, which is exactly why the slices cut without shattering. Wrap the loaves loosely in a cloth, not plastic, so they soften without going damp.
- Anise seedA pinch is imprecise; about half a teaspoon of whole seeds suits this quantity. Bruise them lightly in a mortar to open the flavour.
- Yield and keepingFour loaves give roughly 40 to 50 slices, depending on thickness — cut on a slight diagonal, about 1/2 inch. Fully dried, they keep a month in a tin and are meant to be dipped.
Biscotto means twice-cooked, and this recipe is the plain form of that idea: a lean egg-and-nut dough baked into loaves, sliced, and dried a second time until it will keep for weeks. Almond versions of the type are strongly associated with Tuscany, and Prato in particular, where the hard cantucci are traditionally served with vin santo; pine nuts and anise seed turn up widely in Italian domestic baking and are not particular to any one town. Maria Gentile's Italian Cook Book (1919) was assembled for American households; Pellegrino Artusi's collection includes a closely comparable biscotti croccanti, though how directly Gentile drew on him is not established. The absence of baking powder reflects the older method — eggs, sugar and a long dry bake, the same logic behind ship's biscuit and rusk.