Lent biscuits

Since Lent just started, I decided to write about “Quaresimali”, a kind of dark biscuits shaped as letters or numbers born in the kitchen of Tuscan convents and eaten in the period between Carnival and Easter. Today you can find them just in bakeries around Florence. I prepare them to color the tray where I serve “cantuccini” and “brutti boni”, two other types of buiscuits that my guests like a lot. Then you will have 3 different types of biscuits to choose from!

Quaresimali


Ingredients:

gr: 200 flour
gr: 200 sugar
gr:50 peeled and roasted almond
gr. 50 peeled and roasted hazelnuts
3 eggs white
gr. 50 unsweeted cocoa powder
vanilla extract
cinnemon
about 8 gr. of baking powder

Mill hazelnuts and almonds, mix with flour, sugar, cocoa, vanilla, cinnemon and baking powder. Whip the eggs white and add the other ingredients stirring from down to up. When the mixture is consistent, shape the biscuits on an oven tray. Bake 140°C for about 15 minutes.

Brutti- boni

Ingredients:

g 350 peeled almonds
gr. 300 sugar
4 eggs white

Chopp almonds and mix them with sugar. Whip the eggs white and add almonds. Using two spoons make small balls and let them wait for about an hour and bake at low temperature for about 30 minutes.

Cantuccini

Ingredients:

400 gr.flour
250 gr. sugar
250 gr. peeled almonds
2 eggs
3 yolks
baking powder
orange zert
salt

Whip yolks and eggs with the sugar until creamy, add flour mixed with baking powder, almonds (a bit roasted in advanced) and orange zest.

Shape long cylinders  3 fingers large and one thick. Bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes. Cut obliquely giving the traditional shape. Re-bake for 10 minutes to crisp.All these kind of biscuits have to be kept in glass jar to stay crumbly.