San Donato’s Recipes Advent Calendar: I Cantucci
BEFORE WE BEGIN: PLEASE OUR ACCOUNT WAS HACKED, WHICH IS REALLY SAD, BUT WE HAVE A NEW GREAT ONE!! SO MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW IT FOR SOME GREAT CONTENT!!!!
Hello everyone and welcome to our Advent Calander Recipe series!
We are beyond excited to introduce this new fantastic holiday format: every day, up till christams, we will come up with a festive recipe that will be paired with, and even cooked with, one of our wines. A great opportunity to find out a lot of Federica’s secrets in the kitchen and the best ways to pair our wines!
Today we begin with a classic! The cantucci, to be rigorously paired with – and dunked in – our luxurious Vin Santo.
First of all, let’s start with what the word mean, it’s etimology is particularly interesting. Cantuccio in Italian word that literally means “little place” or “nook” and it also used to indicate the first and last slices of the loaf, the “corners”, the piece of bread with a lot of crust. This nook-y biscotti are originally from Prato and here at San Donato they are never missing from our table! The dessert par excellance!
Now, following this recipe, you can make your dessert right at home. But remember, if you don’t dip it in the Vin Santo you are only enjoy cantucci at half they’re potential. So you bake the biscotti and we’ll think of sending you our Vin Santo – just click here!
INGREDIENTS
- Almonds 250 g
- Eggs 4 + 1 yolk
- Butter 50 g
- White flour 00 500 g
- Sugar 400 g
- Zest of 1 orange
- Honey 10 g
- Baking powder 1/2 sachet
- Salt to taste
- Vin Santo q.s.
Cut the almonds in half lengthwise and toast them in the oven at 150°C for 10 minutes. Raise the oven to 180°C.
Put the flour on a surface, add sugar, baking powder, salt and the 4 eggs to the center and mix. After a few minutes add the vin santo, the orange zest, the honey and the butter melted in a bain-marie, but already warm.
When the mixture is smooth, add the almonds. Divide the dough into 4 parts and form 4 long loaves 3 cm wide. Arrange the dough on a tray covered with baking paper and brush them with the beaten egg yolk.
Place in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the surface is well colored. After cooking, turn off the oven, take the loaves out of the oven and cut them diagonally while still hot, obtaining slices of about 1.5 cm, to be put back in the still hot oven for 10 minutes.
Serve the cantucci cold, accompanied and dipped in Vin Santo.
