almond cantuccini
Almond cantuccini are these famous Italian biscotti served in Italy with vino Santo or in other parts of Europe with coffee. Sometimes people are confused if they should use the word cantuccini or biscotti. Biscotti literally means baked twice and refers in general to cookies, while cantuccini is the correct word for this masterpiece. I always bake a large amount. They would last for a while if my family just could leave them alone. They are so versatile and are served in South Africa with a glass of port, sherry or with a cup of coffee. They are used as a base for tarts and cakes or are added to fresh fruit on a dessert platter etc. You get so many different varieties that you have a hard time to choose which one you are going to make. Almond cantuccini is my first recipe of many to come...
Equipment
- stand mixer
Ingredients
- 500 g whole almonds, skin on
- 600 g white sugar
- 6 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 kg cake wheat flour
- 2-4 tsp almond extract, best quality
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 16 g baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 C.
- Spread the almonds out on a baking tray and roast them for 6 to 8 minutes or until you start smelling them.
- Let them cool down before you add them to the remaining ingredients.
- While the almonds are roasting, add the sugar, eggs and egg yolks into the bowl of your stand mixer and beat the mixture for 5 minutes or until light, airy and pale.
- Now add the flour, almond extract, salt and baking powder and mix well.
- Last, you knead the cooled almonds into the dough.
- Now you form 4 or 5 long rolls with a diameter of 6 or 7 cm. Make sure they are firm and not breaking apart.
- Put these rolls onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, and bake them for 25 to 30 minutes. The dough is not completely baked through at this stage.
- If you can't fit all the dough rolls on one baking tray, bake them in two batches.
- Let the baked rolls cool down for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Now transfer one roll carefully onto a cutting board, take a serrated knife and cut the roll into slices as thin as possible. This is actually the hardest part of making these cookies. Don't give up, sometimes the dough breaks or crumbles... it happens to me as well. I have my best results with a serrated knife but feel free to try whatever works best for you. Maybe you find the perfect instrument to cut thin cantuccini, if you do, please share this with me!
- Put the cut cantuccini (they look like tiny bread slices) in a single layer back onto your baking tray lined with baking paper and bake them for an additional 10 to 15 minutes at 180 C.
- Let them cool completely before you store them in a glass jar or a cookie tin.