Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Dolci Tipica de Tosana

If you couldn’t tell, I am currently on a Italian food-writing binge and since food is a large part of travel and every day fulfillment for me  don’t see any problem incorporating it once and awhile…or regularly…to my travel blog.

On almost all Dolci (dessert) menus in Italy you will see “Dolci tipica de Toscana” or “Cantuccini di Prato con Vinsanto” which are one and the same. Cantuccini is an almond biscotti and considered the classic choice among biscotti lovers and Italians. This biscotti is traditionally served with vinsanto, or a sweet desert wine, and the cantuccini are dipped into the wine to absorb its sweet taste.
           
Recently, Apicius, the Culinary school under the International Association I intern for, hosted a biscotti workshop where we learned how to make Cantuccini di Prato. I wanted to share the recipie with you:

Ingredients:

400 gr. (2 and 2/3rds cup) of all purpose flour

200 gr. (1 cup) of sugar

200 gr. (2 cups) of shelled almonds

3 eggs

1 fresh vanilla

baking powder as needed

salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 365 degrees F. mix the flour, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder, and then make a well in the middle of the mixture. Whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl and add them to the well in the mixture, mix together by hand. When well combined, add the almonds and mix together by hand. Take the dough and make small loaves and place them on a cookie sheet. Do an egg wash over the loaves. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into the typical diagonal biscotti shape as shown and return to the oven until they appear a light golden brown. Serve with vinsanto of your choice!

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