I’ve been through The Cookbook Guru‘s book of choice for July and August, The Italian Baker by Carol Field, and put in little pieces of paper to bookmark all the recipes I want to try. The hard part is trying to figure out where to start.
I’ll definitely be making some of the wonderful breads and trying out the Biga (Starter Dough), but last night I felt like baking some biscuits.
These biscuits are wonderful.
They’re very much like Savoiardi biscuits. So light and crispy with a hint of aniseed.
They’re also very easy to make too. Perfect with a hot cup of tea or coffee. Hard to stop at one….
You’ll need:-
4 eggs
180g castor sugar
5g vanilla extract
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
200g plain flour
pinch of salt
3g baking powder
5-8g aniseed, crushed
Whisk the eggs and sugar together until very thick, about 8-10 minutes. Mix in the vanilla and lemon zest then gently fold in the sifted flour, salt and baking powder. Now stir in the aniseed.
Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a plain 1cm nozzle and pipe 10cm long strips onto a baking paper lined baking tray.
Bake in a pre-heated 190oC oven for 20 minutes then turn the heat down to 160oC and bake for a further 5-8 minutes until lightly browned and crispy.
Cool on the trays for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Personally I’ll be putting in a little more aniseed next time I make these. But then I love the flavour of aniseed.
Light, crispy and easy to make….sounds good to me…
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Enjoy…
Lona's in the kitchen 