Italian · Dessert
Cantucci di Prato
- Easy
- 25 min
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with toasted, nutty warmth throughout, richness that coats and comforts.
Ingredients
- 300 g plain flour
- 250 g caster sugar
- 200 g whole almonds, skin on and untoasted
- 2 whole eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 g fine salt
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 egg, beaten, to glaze
Equipment
Sheet pan · Grater / zester
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · egg · nuts
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Mix the flour, sugar, salt and zest, then work in the eggs and yolk with a spatula to a stiff sticky dough.
- Fold in the almonds whole, then with wet hands shape two logs 5 cm wide on a lined tray, flatten them slightly and brush with beaten egg.
- Bake at 170C (340F) for 25 minutes to 30 minutes until firm and pale gold, then cool them on the tray for 15 minutes. 25 min
- Cut on a 45 degree angle into 1.5 cm slices with a serrated knife, lay them cut side down and bake again at 150C (300F) for 15 minutes to 20 minutes until dry all the way through. 15 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Shaping by hand 85 recipes
- The pieces match: weighed, or judged against each other rather than by dividing the mass by eye, so that no piece is half again the size of its neighbour.
- Surfaces are smooth and unbroken with no cracks, tears, or dry patches, and the seams are sealed and sitting underneath.
- The shape is defined and it holds while the tray waits: it has not slumped, spread, or relaxed back out of its form.
- Nothing is trapped that should not be: no air pocket where filling should be, no filling breaking through the surface, and no excess flour greying the outside.
- They finish together in the heat: no piece done while another is still raw, which is the only test that the first mark was met.
Where it goes wrong The dough was worked past its point or shaped without a rest, so it fought back: the pieces spring out of shape on the tray and bake tight, uneven, and torn along the surface.
At the Table
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The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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