The Origin of Biscotti

From The Roman Legions To Starbucks

CAPSULE REPORT: Originally made as a long-shelf-life food for travelers and carried by the Roman Legions, today’s biscotti are a popular accompaniment to cappuccino and a classic with Vin Santo. Originally flavored with almonds, they are now made in dozens of flavors. We’ve included Mario Batali’s favorite recipe if you want to bake your own.

Though modern biscotti are associated with the Tuscan region of Italy, the popular Italian cookie traces its origins to Roman times. The word biscotto derives from “bis,” Latin for twice, and “coctum” or baked (which became “cotto,” or cooked). The Roman biscotti were more about function food for travelers rather than a pleasurable treat for diners. Unleavened wafers were baked first to cook them, then a second time to completely dry them out, making them durable for travel and nourishment for the long journeys—Pliny boasted that they would be edible for centuries. Biscotti were a staple of the diet of the Roman Legions.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, it was repeatedly sacked by the Visigoths, the Vandals and others from 455 A.D. With the Renaissance, cuisine also flowered. Biscotti emerged in Tuscany, credited to a Tuscan baker who served them with the local sweet wine. Their dry, crunchy texture was deemed to be the perfect medium to soak up the sweet local wine (and how much more flavorful than dunking a donut in coffee!). Centuries later, many still agree that dipping biscotti into Vin Santo is a perfect way to end a meal, or while away an hour at a cafe.

Tuscan biscotti were flavored with almonds from almond groves of Prato. There, the cookies were—and still are—known as cantucci. Cantucci di Prato can be found in the window of every pasticceria in Tuscany.

Biscotti became a staple in the Tuscan cities of Florence and Prato, and spread throughout the Italian peninsula. As the Roman Legions had appreciated their long storage ability so did contemporary soldiers, sailors and fisherman. But now, rather than pallid, dry staples for nourishment, Italian bakers put their culinary gifts to work. Biscotti became so popular that every province developed their own flavored version.

Eli's Biscotti

Eli’s makes a softer-style biscotti, by adding butter or oil to the dough.

From the almond recipe of Tuscany, the recipe expanded to anisette-, amaretto- and lemon-flavored dough and to other spices; to biscotti with raisins and other dried fruits; to those studded with chocolate morsels and with other varieties of nuts. Today, the flavorings are only limited to the imagination of the baker and the palates of the customer. A recent survey of flavors for sale on Amazon turned up as many flavors for biscotti flavors as one would imagine for muffins:

Apricot Hazelnut, Berry Patriotic (dried cherries and blueberries with white almond), Butterscotch, Cappuccino, Cashew Sesame, Cherry Almond, Chocolate Brownie, Chocolate Cappuccino, Chocolate Cherry Amaretto, Chocolate Hazelnut, Chocolate Macadamia, Chocolate Pistachio, Chocolate Tiramisu, Cinnamon Almond, Cinnamon Hazelnut, Cinnamon Pecan, Cinnamon Sugar, Coconut Chocolate Chunk, Coffee Cashew, Cranberry Almond, Cranberry Orange, Cranberry Walnut, Dark Chocolate, Gingerbread, Hazelnut, Lemon Almond, Lemon Blueberry Poppyseed, Irish Cream Pistachio, Marble, Peanut, Pecan Toffee Pistachio Cranberry, Pistachio Rum, Macadamia Nut, Maple Praline, Mint Almond, Mint Chocolate, Spumoni (combined chocolate, cherry and pistachio), Toffee Currant, Triple Chocolate, White Chocolate

Biscotti are frequently found iced with melted chocolate and other frostings, and like other cookies, can be ornately decorated for special occasions. They are made in a 3" size, a 5" size, and a 7" size, the latter usually reserved for cafes and ice cream parlors.

You Say Biscotti, I Say Cantucci

As noted, Italians call biscotti cantucci, and use the term biscotti to refer to any type of crunchy cookie, as the British use the word biscuit. In North America, we use biscotti as the ancient Romans did, to describe a long, dry, hard twice-baked cookie (or, cantucci).

Most European countries have adopted their own version of biscotti: the British have rusks; the French, biscotte and croquets de carcassonne; the Germans, zwieback; Greeks, biskota and paxemadia; the Jews, mandelbrot; and the Russians, sukhariki.

Bake Mario Batali’s Biscotti

Biscotti range in texture from very hard to somewhat spongy and more cake-like. First, the sticky dough is shaped into a log and baked until firm. After a short cooling period, the log is sliced into diagonal slices and baked again to cook out the moisture and produce the crisp, dry-textured cookie with a longer shelf life. The classic recipe has no butter or oil, using only eggs to bind the ingredients together. Recipes that do use butter or oil have a softer texture and a shorter shelf life. There are many delicious variations on the classic recipe: click here for some good cookbooks featuring biscotti.

Here’s a recipe from one of America’s favorite Italian chefs Mario Batali. Chef Batali notes, “The following recipe is my favorite for simple, crunchy biscotti, spiked with the flavor of toasted anise seed and a shot of anisette liqueur. Use whole almonds, and chop them roughly with a knife, rather than a food processor, to keep them in large pieces, which will look beautiful when the biscotti are sliced. You may also substitute half or all of the almonds with hazelnuts, using Frangelico or Amaretto instead of the anisette.”

Ingredients

3-½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 large eggs
2 egg yolks plus one egg white, reserved
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons anisette or amaretto
1 tablespoon anise seed
6 cups coarsely chopped whole
almonds
1 tablespoon granulated sugar for glaze

Biscotti Pan

Biscotti Pan. From Chicago Metallic’s commercial line of bakeware, designed specifically for biscotti baking.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease two heavy cookie sheets, or line with parchment paper.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until light, about 2 minutes; the mixture will look somewhat curdled. Beat in the vanilla, anisette or amaretto, and anise seed. Beat in the dry ingredients, then the chopped nuts.
Divide the dough into four portions. On a lightly floured board, shape each portion into a flat log, just about the length the cookie sheet. Place two rolls on each cookie sheet.
In a small bowl, beat the egg white with a fork until frothy. With a pastry brush, glaze each log with some egg white and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the logs are lightly golden brown, firm to the touch and just beginning to crack slightly.
Allow the logs to cool on the cookie sheet until cool to the touch, about 40 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 200°. With a serrated knife, slice the biscotti, slightly on the bias, into ½-inch slices. Lay the slices on the cookie sheets in single layer; Return the biscotti to the oven and cook for 20 more minutes, or until the biscotti are toasted and crisp
Store the biscotti in an airtight container. They will keep up to about 2 weeks.

For more of Chef Batali’s recipes, visit the website of his enormously popular New York City restaurant, Babbo, or add one of these great books to your library:


Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home, by Mario Batali. With dishes from many of the 21 regions of Italy, simple everyday dishes and regional specialties will delight Italian food lovers. Fans will find repeat renditions of signature Batali dishes found in his earlier volumes, such as Short Ribs in Barolo, and Bucatini all’Amatriciana, but can also discover tantalizing new ones, such as Malloredus with Fennel, Game Hen with Pomegranate, and Lamb Shanks with Orange and Olive. Click here for more information or to purchase.	Mario Batali Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages, by Mario Batali. The two villages are his ancestral village of Borgo Cappene, a hillside village in northern Italy; and Greenwich Village, location of his great restaurant Babbo and other very popular dining establishments. The book features nearly 250 of Batali’s favorite recipes, traditional and innovative, for delectable salads, pastas, grilled specialties, ragus, and desserts. The collection reflects Batali’s commitment to simple cooking. Click here for more information or to purchase.	Holiday Food, by Mario Batali. Chef Batali presents four complete menus for the holidays and captures all the fun and festivity that epitomize Italian celebrations. True to the commitment to simple cooking evident in his first book, Simple Italian Food (see book at left), the dishes here deliver maximum flavor and enjoyment without being overly complicated. Try something different for the holidays this year. Click here for more information or to purchase.

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