I love the fact that cantucci is storing well, especially in the humid Singapore weather. A bag of cantucci di mandorla that we bought from train station in Venice taste so good, in November, a full 3 months since the end of our vacation. Ahhh, the sweet taste of Italian holiday right at home.
Ingredients
- White flour 400g
- White sugar 250g
- Eggs 3
- Egg yolks 3
- Whole almonds (with skin on) 200g
- Baking powder 10g
- Vanilla sugar (optional)
- Salt
- Bake once …
- Put the oven on to heat up at 200°C.
- Put all of the ingredients except for the almonds into a bowl and mix them together well.
- When
everything is well mixed add the almonds and give them another quick
mix. Don’t be too vigorous or you will separate the skin from the
almonds (which you really don’t want to do).
- Form it into a doughy ball and scrape it out on to a lightly floured work surface.
- Divide
the dough into four equal parts and roll each one into a sausage
shape slightly shorter than the tray you are going to bake them on.
- Put
the sausages onto a lined baking tray, taking care not to put them too
close to each other or to the edges of the tray (they will expand more
than you think they will), and press down on each one gently with the
palm of your hand to flatten them slightly.
- Brush the tops with egg yolk and bake them for 20-25 minutes, until they are a golden brown.
- … and bake twice.
- Cut your logs on a slight diagonal into slices about 1cm thick.
- Transfer
your cantuccini back to the baking tray with a cut side facing upwards,
and bake them again until they look well toasted.
- Leave
them to cool down and enjoy. With a glass of Vin Santo if you are being
traditional, or with anything at all if you aren’t.
If you keep them in an airtight container then these cantuccini will easily keep for three weeks, if not longer.
Recipe credit from pork&gin blog.
