Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [280]
4. Shape the dough into a large sausage roll about 2 inches thick, and make it into a ring. Pinch the ends together to close the ring. Brush the surface with the teaspoonful of yolk you have set aside and 1 teaspoon water, and score with a few shallow diagonal cuts.
5. Smear the baking sheet with butter, sprinkle it with flour, then turn it over and give it a rap on the counter to shake off excess flour. Put the ring in its center and place the sheet in the upper level of the preheated oven. Bake for 35 minutes. It should rise to nearly double its original size. Transfer to a cooling rack. When cold, wrap in foil or store in a tin biscuit box, but do not refrigerate. It tastes best served the following day.
Brutti Ma Buoni—Piedmontese Almond Cookies
55 to 60 cookies
11 ounces almonds, blanched and skinned, as described
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 egg whites
Salt
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Butter for smearing the cookie sheet
1. At least 30 minutes before you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 300°.
2. If using a food processor, pulverize the peeled almonds together with the sugar, turning the processor on and off.
If using a knife, chop the almonds very fine by themselves, preferably while they are still warm, then combine them with the sugar.
3. Whip the egg whites in a bowl together with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks.
4. Fold the egg whites into the almond and sugar mixture together with the vanilla extract.
5. Smear a baking sheet or shallow pan with butter. Scoop up some of the cookie batter with a tablespoon, and use another spoon to push it off onto the baking sheet or pan. Keep the mounds of batter about 1½ inches apart. Don’t worry if they seem shapeless: Their Italian name means ugly, but good; they are expected to be very irregular.
6. Bake on the middle rack of the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Spread them out on a cooling rack. These cookies keep for a very long time if stored in a tin biscuit box.
Calabresi—Almond and Lemon Cookies
About 4 dozen cookies
4 ounces almonds, blanched and skinned, as described
½ cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
2 heaping cups unbleached flour
Salt
The peel of 1 lemon grated without digging into the white pith beneath
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Butter for smearing the cookie sheet or pan
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water
A pastry brush
1. At least 30 minutes before you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 400°.
2. If using a food processor, pulverize the peeled almonds together with the sugar, turning the processor on and off.
If using a knife, chop the almonds very fine by themselves, preferably while they are still warm, then combine with the sugar.
3. If using the food processor, add the 2 egg yolks, the flour, a pinch of salt, the grated lemon peel, and the lemon juice. Run the steel blade until the batter forms a smooth lump.
If doing it by hand, put the almond and sugar mixture into a bowl, and add the ingredients as above. Work the batter with your hands for 8 to 10 minutes, until the ingredients are smoothly amalgamated.
4. Smear a cookie sheet or shallow pan with butter.
5. Lightly flour a work surface, a rolling pin, and your hands. Pull a piece the size of an apple from the batter, and roll it out to a thickness of ¼ inch. Use a 2-inch cookie cutter, or a glass of similar diameter, to cut the dough into disks, and place the disks not quite edge to edge on the baking sheet or pan. Knead dough scraps together, roll out, and cut into more disks.
6. When you have rolled out and cut all the dough, brush all the disks on top with beaten egg. Bake for 10 minutes on the middle rack of the preheated oven.
7. When done, transfer to a cooling rack. Once cold, store in a biscuit box or cookie jar, where they will keep well for weeks.
Gallette—Salt and Pepper Biscuits
THESE are excellent apéritif cookies.
3½ dozen biscuits
2 extra-large eggs
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1½ cups unbleached flour
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon black pepper ground coarse
2½ teaspoons baking powder