Homemade Prato Cookies… with Vin Santo

FLORENCE, ITALY – The  traditional Prato cookies, also known as Cantuccini, are twice-baked biscuits originating in the Tuscan city of Prato, few miles away from Florence. The almond biscuits are made dry and crunchy.

Following rediscovery of the original recipe by Prato-based pastry chef Antonio Mattei in the nineteenth century, his variation is what is now accepted as the traditional recipe for biscotti. Mattei brought his cakes to the Exposition Universelle of Paris of 1867, winning a special mention.

Now, everybody can cook it at home. Read and taste the traditional recipe.

Ingredients for 60 biscotti:

• Flour 3 1\4 cups
• Sugar 2\3 cup
• Toasted almond 8’ounces
• 3 whole eggs
• 3 eggs yolks
• Butter softened 4 tablespoons
• Vin santo 1\2 cup
• Baking powder 3 teaspoons
• Salt

Mound the flour on a flat surface make a well in the center. Add the eggs and 2 yolk, sugar, butter, vin santo and a pinch of salt to the well.

Toasted almond in the over till change color. Work the ingredient into the flour to make a dough, and fold the toasted almond in.

Shape the dough into a log, and place on a baking sheet with oven paper. Brush with egg yolk, and bake in preheated 350* oven for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and using a knife slice the log into 1-inch thick piece.

Arrange the biscotti on a baking sheet and return to the oven for 10 minutes to toast.

Dip biscotti in Vin Santo!

Thanks to Sonia.