We've been eating food from recipes that I brought back from Italy for weeks now - and NO ONE is complaining! This recipe is a really classic dessert in Tuscany. Served with a glass of their typical digestif vinsanto. A rosy, amber colored liquor that's supposed to help you digest your food; and one I happen to enjoy! It's not for everyone though so no one would blame you if you stashed these biscotti till morning and dunked them in your coffee instead!

What I love about these cookies is there's not THAT much sugar in them. They're mildly sweet; getting most of their flavor from the whole almonds in them! For as many as this recipe makes (and trust me, I scaled it down from what they gave me!) you're not getting a lot of sugar in each cookie...the key is not eat 30 of them. Because they're addictive!

I was really happy to get this recipe from Certosa di Pontignano - and more so to be able to share it with all of you. I hope you enjoy these little cookies as much as we did at the end of almost every Tuscan meal! If you haven't already - be sure to check out my travel vlog from the Italy trip here!

Buon Appetito!

Cantucci
Makes about 100 biscotti

4 1/4 C. flour
1 1/2 C. sugar
1 C. (2 sticks) butter
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of yeast
1/2 C. vinsanto
3 C. whole, raw, almonds

Preheat the oven to 400°. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, and yeast, whisk.

Mix butter, eggs, vanilla and vinsanto. Pour into dry ingredients. Use your hands to mix until a dough starts to form.

Add in the almonds and continue mixing until almonds are incorporated throughout the dough.

Prepare a cutting board or countertop with a sprinkle of flour. Pinch off large, baseball sized sections of dough. Roll them into a 2 inch wide snake and then place them on the cookie sheet. Continue until all dough is rolled and on the cookie sheets.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and slice the logs on a diagonal forming the cookies. Lay the cookies flat back on the baking sheet and return them to the oven for 5 minutes. Allow to cool before serving with vinsanto.