Grandma Menna’s Kitchen: Prato Cookies
If you come to Tuscany, at any time, in any bar of any city or of any little country village, you’ll find those typical sweets: ricciarelli, panforte and Prato biscotti, which means literally baked twice. Ricciarelli and Panforte are mostly related to Christmas holidays, while you can eat cantuccini all year round as a quick dessert with a glass of good vinsanto, a typical Tuscan sweet white raisin wine.
I’m absolutely a teetotaller, so I don’t soak them in vinsanto, but in water… I know, it’s a nonsense… but when I was a child and my uncle used to soak them in vinsanto, I was given a glass of water to dip them in. Since then, this flavour brings me back to after dinner moments in San Gimignano, when the only problem was to choose in between playing cards with my granddad and my cousin or reading comics lying on my Aunt’s huge bed.
With this recipe you’ll get biscuits that are slightly softer than normal thanks to the orange honey. They are spectacular even without soaking them in vinsanto.
Prato Cookies
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Share by EmailIngredients
- 2 eggs, whites and yolks separated
- 230 g sugar
- 20 g orange honey
- 250 g flour
- ½ teaspoon baking ammonia
- Grated peel of 1 orange
- 125 g unpeeled almonds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C, fan assisted.
- Whip the egg whites for about 5 minutes until they are firm, then add the sugar and whip until you get a glossy and thick meringue.
- Fold in thoroughly the honey and the egg yolks, then fold gently in the flour sifted with the baking ammonia and the grated orange peel. Mix in the almonds.
- Line with parchment paper a large baking pan and with the help of a spoon form two loaves of dough keeping them well separated, about 5 cm wide and 30 cm long.
- Bake them for about 15 minutes, then remove them from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes and then cut them slantwise into 2 cm thick slices with a sharp knife, then arrange them cut-side-down in the baking tin and put them back in the oven for about 5 - 10 minutes, until toasted.
- You can store them in a tin for several days.
GREAT NEWS! today I’m really happy, finally Basil, an american web magazine, is on line! Have a look at my monthly column, obviously dedicated to Tuscan Cooking! Tuscany Home Sweet Home… doesn’t it remind you anything? can I indulge in pride and satisfaction for today? Com’on, just for one day!
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Your photography is really great. Those little cookies would be hard to resist.
Beautiful photo! I love the sound of these! In the recipe, you specified “sweet almonds”. Does that simply mean raw, unsalted almonds?
@ The Duo Dishes: thank you! it is all due to the sunset light! They are really really hard to resist, for sure!
@ Cookin’ Canuck: Sweet almonds, yeah, simply raw unsalted!
These seem like scaled-down version of a biscotti.
Looks tasty ! Thank you for sharing. Cheers !
These look and sound delicious…and simple to make (definitely a plus). Congratulations on the magazine!
These look yummy- similar to Jewish mandel bread but easier to make, I think!
hello 🙂
this seems like a cross between biscotti and almond butter cookies but is so much simpler. Thanks for sharing this, I will definitely try it.
have a nice day! 🙂
These look so very “real-deal” authentic biscotti di Prato…Is it Vin Santo that is the appropriate “dunking” vehicle?!…These must be made for Natale!!
I made these today. I followed your directions to the letter,. Dough is tough and shaggy but can be spread with a spoon and gentle prodding. Baked them 15 minutes in a 350′ convection oven. They browned quickly but after 15 minutes, I gently pressed the top and they felt soft in the middle, let them go for another 2-3 minutes, pulled them out and let them rest for 5 minutes.
When I sliced them, they had a soft center, almost half-baked, but I put them back in the baking pan and put them into the oven for about 7 minutes but they darkened much quicker than I expected, not burned, but with a darker flavor and too dark to gift to someone.
.They are crisp and insides are tender but they are much too sweet for our family.
I plan to try again, use less sugar, bake a little longer on the first bake, at 325′ maybe, and go shorter on the second bake. I think this is a good start for where I am trying to go with biscotti and I do like the hint of orange.
Have any other readers made them and responded on results?
Hello, this is quite an old recipe. Why don’t you give a try to this one: https://en.julskitchen.com/dessert/cookies/tuscan-biscotti
Just substitute pistachios and white chocolate with almonds, use 220 g of them!
This is an excellent recipe