The 2021 edition of the Great British Bake off is on and this week is biscuit week. Could I not give my humble contribution to the ocean of biscuits of all shapes and sizes that has been flooding the internet this week? I had to.
I decided to go with something that is a little less known and that I am sure many people will fall in love with, particularly as these little fellas go so well with tea and coffee, my beloved coffee.
Canestrelli biscuits (or canestrini) are classic shortbread biscuits from Northern Italy. One of my favourite. They look like snow-white flower biscuits, they are traditionally covered in icing sugar, and they have a crumbly and melt in the mouth texture thanks to the butter and the addition of a magic ingredient, hard-boiled egg yolks.
Yes, you read it right, hard-boiled egg yolks. Unusual, but believe this baker, it makes a whole lot of difference.
The good thing is that the recipe is also very simple. The bad thing is that Canestrelli biscuits are addictive and you won’t be able to stop anymore, one after the other alongside a nice cuppa of tea or coffee. If you are into dunking like me, look nowhere else. They will surely became your staple to get you through working-from-home winter days.
And they’re already gone.
If you are into biscuits, try my rhubarb-filles orange biscuits, while late summer rhubarb is still in season. Or if you’re feeling more like ‘autumn is here and I can’t stop craving for comfort food’ I’d recommend you give a go at my salted caramel and lemon jam sandwich biscuits.
Tea time sorted.
Ingredients
FOR THE DOUGH
- 100g plain flour
- 50g corn flour
- 50g almond flour
- 2 hard-boiled egg yolks
- 125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 60g icing sugar plus extra for dusting
- 1g salt
- 1 ½ tsp almond essence
- zest of half a lemon
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
- Flower shaped cookie cutter (5cm diameter)
- Straight 1 cm piping nozzle
Method
MAKE THE DOUGH (at least two hours before baking)
- Combine the flours (plain, corn and almond), icing sugar and salt in a bowl and sift twice. Add the cold butter and rub with your hands until you get a crumbly consistency. Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer with the leaf/paddle attachment on a low speed to achieve the same result.
- Press the hard-boiled egg yolks through a fine sieve twice, then add to the crumbly mix alongside the almond extract and the lemon zest. Briefly mix to combine everything and bring it together into a dough. Do not knead, just stop as soon as it comes together. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least two hours.
BAKE THE BISCUITS
- Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out on a floured surface at about 1cm thickness. With a small flower shaped cookie cutter (about 5cm diameter) stamp as many biscuits as you can, flouring the cutter to prevent it from sticking to the dough. Gently bring the dough together with your hands, roll it out again and continue stamping as many biscuits as you can fit.
- Line the biscuits regularly on a baking sheet lined with parchment or silicone mat, and using the tip of a piping nozzle stamp a hole in the middle of each biscuit. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. In the meanwhile, heat the oven to 170˚C conventional mode.
- Take the biscuits out of the fridge and bake them for 17 minutes. They should still be quite pale when they come out. Transfer to a wire rack to cool down completely. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy with a nice cup of black tea or coffee.