Cantuccini

There was this Italian guy on TV with his fancy cooking show and actually it wasn't half bad. Obviously, if you're a chef, you know something about cooking and if you're an Italian chef, Italian food is probably your expertise. Or it should be when you're on TV.

This one time, he made cantuccini, an Italian biscuit-y thing with nuts. They're pretty hard and crunchy and you're supposed to serve them with a dessert wine. I made it once before I even had the blog and they were quite nice but I think I left them in the oven for too long because they were practically inedible without dipping into hot cocoa.

So for my second attempt, I decided to add a bit of oil into the recipe. Believe it or not, the chef's recipe had no oil or milk in it. It was just the eggs! I guess that must have been the cause for the hardness... Anyway, you still want these to be more crunchy than chewy, so I recommend baking it twice. First 20 minutes, then cut into pieces and then 5 more minutes just for the added crunchiness :)


Cantuccini
for about 30 cookies you will need:

• 2 eggs
• 250g caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 300g all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 100g hazelnuts, whole
• 100g blanched almonds, whole
• 100g almonds, whole

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a tray with a baking paper. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the oil and add sugar in batches while whisking.
3. In a different bowl, mix the flour with the salt and baking powder and stir into the sugary mixture. The dough will be very tough. Once combined, add the nuts and stir until incorporated.
4. Transfer the dough on a floured surface and knead until it is not sticky and holds a shape. Divide into halves and make them into two sausage shaped nutty noodles.
5. Transfer on the tray and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden. Once done, take them out but don't turn off the oven.
6. Cut the noodles while hot into 2cm thick slightly angled pieces. Transfer them back on the tray with the cut side up and return them in the oven for 5 more minutes but pay attention so you don't burn them - that would make them rock hard in the end :)
7. Keep them in an airtight container for couple days, it will only make them better.

quite a lot of nuts when you look at it

nutty sausages