We met with Connor; the Head Chef at Town+House pub, who showed us an easy baking recipe for Christmas. These delicious Italian biscuits are perfect for dipping into a glass of creamy Bailey's on Christmas eve, served with a frothy coffee on Sunday mornings or wrapped up and gifted to someone you love.
The name for these comes from the process of baking the dough twice (Biscotto: bis meaning twice and cotto meaning cooked) which achieves that seriously satisfying snap.
INGREDIENTS:
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
Zest 1 lemon
100g caster sugar
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
25g toasted hazelnuts
50g Demerara sugar
METHOD:
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.
2. Whisk together the eggs and vanilla or almond extract with the lemon zest.
3. In a large bowl, combine the caster sugar, plain flour and bicarbonate of soda and mix well.
4. Create a well in the dry mix and slowly pour in all of the wet mix.
5. Using a wooden spoon, start bringing the dry mix to the centre and gradually combining it.
6. Add your toasted hazelnuts (these can be roughly chopped or left whole).
7. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead together with equally lightly floured hands (the dough will be sticky!).
8. Once formed into a dough; cut in half and then roll each section into it's own sausage shape, around 2 inches wide.
9. Place each sausage onto a lined baking sheet and pop into the oven for 20 minutes.
10. Allow the sausages of dough to cool, enough to be able to handle them. They should have formed a crust but still be quite cakey in the centre. While they cool, turn your oven down to 150°C.
11. Slice each log at an angle into around 1cm thick biscuits and lay them evenly onto a lined baking sheet.
12. Sprinkle each biscuit with demerara sugar and put in the oven to bake for a further 20 minutes until they go nice and golden brown.
To serve
Let cool down completely to get the best snap and enjoy with a coffee or glass of port.
