Serves: 5
Biscotti, or cookies, are the most beloved and most often eaten sweet in Italy. They range from hard, slightly sweet biscuitlike cookies eaten with the morning cappucino to more elaborate confections filled with fruit and nuts enjoyed on holidays and feast days. Biscotti means "biscuits." It derives from bis and cotti, literally "cooked again" or "cooked twice." Though all cookies are called biscotti in Italy, not all biscotti are actually baked twice.
The cookies that actually are baked twice are the crunchy slices that are typical in Tuscany, Umbria, the Marches, and other regions of central Italy. The dough is formed into a long log and partially baked until it is just set, but slightly soft in the center. Then the log is cut into crosswise slices and baked again briefly until cooked through and toasted.
Twice-baked biscotti are hard and crunchy. Do not confuse them with the kind of soft, buttery rich cookie you may find at your local coffee shop in the United States. Italians make biscotti very hard and dry because they want to dunk them in wine or coffee. The liquid is absorbed and provides all the softening the cookies need. To get this consistency, Italian cooks leave out most of the sugar and butter that would typically be used in this country. In fact, many Italian biscotti recipes have no butter or shortening at all. The hard, dry cookies are meant to be kept around for a while, and butter or other fats would hasten their becoming stale.
Aside from the twice-cooked variety, Italians make a great variety of cookies. Hazelnut cookies are popular in northern Italy, while almond macaroons (amaretti) are made in various forms throughout southern Italy, where both bitter and sweet almond trees grow. Butter cookies and chocolate cookies are more prevalent in the north.
In this chapter you will also find variations on Italian cookies that are made in the United States. These include biscotti rich in butter and sugar that are not quite as crunchy as the Italian kind.
Though they often serve delicious cakes at teatime or for special occasion meals, most of my Italian friends who are home cooks do not bake. Because there is always a pastry shop nearby with a delicious specialty, even the best cooks in Italy leave fancy cake making to the professionals. On major holidays like Christmas and Easter, you will see crowds of customers filling the bakeries and pastry shops to purchase artistically prepared cakes. In Sicily, the holiday specialty might be a beautiful cassata, layers of cake and sweetened ricotta elaborately garnished with candied fruits and tinted almond paste. In Turin, look for torta gianduja, a rich dense cake made with chocolate and hazelnuts. Milanese bakers are reknowned for their panettone, a yeast cake with candied fruits and nuts.
Homemade cakes in Italy are usually quite simple, whether sponge cakes or rustic cakes made with fruits and nuts. I find them delicious and uncomplicated to make. If a more elaborate dessert is desired, you can always dress them up with a special sauce or ice cream. This chapter includes a selection of basic and elaborate cakes that are well within the range of anyone who enjoys baking.
Crostate and torte (tarts and cakes) always have pride of place in pastry shops in Italy. According to the season and region, they may be filled with gemlike glazed fruit, creamy cheese, nuts, or chocolate, and they are always appealing.
Torte usually have a thicker cake layer as a base, while crostate are thin-crusted like a tart. Don't be surprised if the distinction between the two is blurred, however. And sometimes, a thin tartlike pastry is also called a pizza dolce. No matter what they are called, these are my favorite baked desserts. The crusts are buttery, the fruit and nut toppings intensely flavored, and the pastry cream and cheese fillings are smooth and light.
Special occasions, particularly in southern Italy, are a time for feasting, and no feast would be complete without pastries, which may be either baked or fried. At one time, many of these special sweets were prepared in bakeries operated by cloistered nuns. There are still a few of those bakeries left, and a visit to one is a glimpse into the past. Most special-occasion sweets today are made in pastry shops. Sundays and holidays all year round, there are lines out the door of famous pastry shops like Scaturchio in Naples or Stancampiano in Palermo, as customers wait to buy their sfogliatelle, cannoli, and other treats.
For those who can't satisfy their cravings in Italy, I give you the recipes to make these delicious pastries at home.
BASIC COOKIES
Ladyfingers
Semolina Cookies
Vin Santo Rings
Marsala Cookies
Sesame Wine Biscuits
Sesame Cookies
Anisette Toast
"S" Cookies
Butter Rings
Lemon Knots
Spice Cookies
Wafer Cookies
Sweet Ravioli
"Ugly-but-Good" Cookies
CHOCOLATE COOKIES
Jam Spots
Double-Chocolate Nut Biscotti
Chocolate Kisses
No-Bake Chocolate "Salame"
NUT COOKIES
Prato Biscuits
Umbrian Fruit and Nut Biscotti
Lemon Nut Biscotti
Walnut Biscotti
Almond Macaroons
Pine Nut Macaroons
Hazelnut Bars
Walnut Butter Cookies
Rainbow Cookies
Christmas Fig Cookies
Almond Brittle
Sicilian Nut Rolls
PLAIN CAKES
Sponge Cake
Citrus Sponge Cake
Lemon Olive-Oil Cake
Marble Cake
Rum Cake
Grandmother's Cake
CAKES WITH FRUIT
Apricot Almond Cake
Summer Fruit Torte
Autumn Fruit Torte
Polenta and Pear Cake
CAKES WITH RICOTTA
Ricotta Cheesecake
Sicilian Ricotta Cake
Ricotta Crumb Cake
Easter Wheat-Berry Cake
CHOCOLATE CAKES
Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
Chocolate Almond Cake
Chocolate Orange Torte
Chocolate Rum Raisin Cake
CAKES WITH DRIED FRUIT AND NUTS
Abruzzo-Style Almond Cake
with Chocolate Frosting
Rum and Currant Loaf Cakes
Warm Amaretti Cakes
Marsala Walnut Cake
Crunchy Walnut Cake
Piedmontese Hazelnut Cake
Mantua Cake
Christmas Sweet Bread (Panettone)
BREAD PUDDINGS
Chocolate-Raisin Bread Pudding
Panettone Bread Pudding
Biscotti Bread Pudding
Pear and Apple Cake
TARTS
Single-Crust Pastry
Double-Crust Pastry
Berry Mascarpone Tart
Summer Fruit Tart
Blueberry Crostata
Raspberry Cream Tart
Sour-Cherry Jam Tart
Apple Marzipan Tart
Fig and Walnut Crostata
Dried Fig Tart
Lemon Almond Tart
Almond and Peach Tart
Pine Nut Tart
Winter Fruit and Nut Crostata
Ricotta Lattice Tart
Roman Ricotta Tart
Ricotta Jam Tart
Chocolate Tart
Rice Pudding Tart
Cornmeal Berry Tart
Spice and Nut Tart
Cinnamon Plum Torte
PASTRIES
Cannoli Cream
Chocolate Cannoli Cream
Pastry Cream
Cream Puffs
St. Joseph's Fritters
Honey Balls
Feast Day Puffs
Ricotta Fritters
Bow Ties
Honey Pinwheels
Ricotta Pockets
Crisp Ricotta Pastries
Cannoli
From "1,000 Italian Recipes." Copyright 2004 by Michele Scicolone. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This * Cookies, Cakes, Tarts, and Pastries recipe is from the Cook'n in Italy Cookbook. Download this Cookbook today.
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