Cantuccini Di Prato

I love biscotti, and this is a wonderful recipe if you're a bit of a purist when it comes to biscotti. I didn't want chocolate chunks, cranberries or apricots. I simply was after a recipe for plain traditional biscotti, which was amazingly difficult to find. 

I finally came across Marco Pierre's White's recipe for biscotti and I am pleased to say that it was utterly delicious. Not too sweet, with crunchy hazelnuts and almonds and lovely flavours of fennel and orange. 



These are wonderful and are obviously made for dunking into a cup of coffee, or tea or whatever hot beverage you like. And it also makes around 35 biscotti, so you'll have lots to share with friends and family.

Cantuccini Di Prato (Traditional Tuscan Biscotti)

Recipe adapted from Marco Pierre White

Ingredients:

250g/9oz almonds with skin on
150g/5oz hazelnuts, with skin on
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
350g/12oz caster sugar
Grated zest of a large orange
50g/2oz warm melted butter
450g/16oz plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp fennel seeds
A pinch of salt
1 egg yolk beaten, for glazing 

Method:

1. Lightly toast the almonds and hazelnuts on a large tray in a hot oven for about 10-15 minutes at 180C. Keep an eye on them and take them out when they start smelling toasty. Leave the oven on at 180C for the biscotti. 

2. Mix the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and salt with an electric mixer until the mix turns white. Add in the orange zest and melted butter. 

3. Whilst still mixing with the electric mixer, gradually sift in the baking powder and plain flour. 

4. Add in the toasted nuts and fennel seeds and stir with a spoon, as the mixture will be quite thick. Form the dough into four large loaves (mine looked more like cylinders) and put onto a tray lined with baking paper. You probably will need two trays as they will spread out a bit during the cooking. 

5. Brush with the beaten egg yolk and put in the oven for 30 minutes to cook. If the loaves on the top shelf are going browner than the bottom, then switch them half way through the cooking process.

6. The loaves are done when they are golden brown and a skewer inserted in comes out clean. 

7. Turn the oven down to 150C. Allow the loaves to cool enough to handle before slicing into slices about 1.5cm thick (if you cut them too thin, they will crumble, so don't go too thin). 

8. Put the cut slices back on their trays and cook for about 10 minutes, until they are dried out a bit more and turning brown at the edges. They will harden considerably after cooling, so don't fret too much if they feel a little soft, if need be you can always put them back in the oven to dry out further. Allow to cool completely before putting into a container. Enjoy.