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Hi, I am chef Nico.
Welcome to Italia Plant Based.
Here we cook traditional Italian
recipes, with a vegan spin. Today
we show you how to make 4 typical Italian biscuits:
red wine cookies, almond biscotti,
amaretti, and
orange almond cookies.
Let's start with the red wine cookies.
We use a traditional recipe from
Umbria in central Italy, since
this recipe is naturally vegan.
Start by putting the raisins to soak
in the sweet red wine, or if you can find it
in "must" like in the traditional recipe.
At the same time, put the anise seeds to
soak in some water, so that we wake up
the aroma and also, we soften the seeds.
In a bowl add the dry ingredients:
flour, sugar,
anise powder
baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
Mix well with a spatula,
then add the red wine
and the raisins, the vegetable
oil - we use sunflower seed
oil - and the anise seeds
without the soaking water.
Mix well with the spatula
till you get a dough.
Then transfer it on a worktop
and knead for 1 minute.
Don't overknead, just the time to
bring all the ingredients together.
It should turn out soft but that
doesn't stick to your hands.
When ready, cut the dough ball into 4 pieces.
Then roll each piece with your hands to
get long snake-shaped pieces of dough.
They should be about 1 cm / 0.4 inches
thick. Cut the snakes into shorter
pieces, long about 10 cm / 4 inches
each.
When they are all cut
take them one by one and give them
a quick second roll with your hands
and make a ring out of them
bringing together the two extremities of the snakes.
Seal well the ring pinching
with your finger.
Then place them on a baking tray lined
with parchment paper or with a silicon
baking mat and cook in a preheated
oven at 180 C / 355 F for about 18 to
20 minutes - it depends a lot on the oven
so keep an eye on them so that they
don't over-brown.
Now your red wine cookies are ready.
Let them cool down, then transfer them
on a serving platter, and sprinkle with
powdered sugar.
These little biscuits are really
delicious and perfect as a snack at
any time of the day.
And now, as second recipe, we stay in centra
Italy, and we show you how to make Cantucci Toscani
known around the world as Biscotti.
These are probably the most famous
Italian dry cookies in the world
so we were super excited to show you the
vegan version of them. They are delicious
dipped in sweet wine after a meal,
or dipped in warm plant milk as a snack.
To make vegan Cantucci we start by
mixing together vegetable oil,
plant milk,
vanilla extract, lemon zest,
salt, sugar, and powdered sugar.
mix with a whisk till you get
a smooth liquid, without any lumps.
Now you can add the almonds,
whole and with the skin on. Give them a
stir to cover them in the liquid.
Then add the flour and the baking powder.
Mix well with a spatula or with a
wooden spoon till you have
a dough ball.
Be gentle with the dough, we don't
want to break the almonds. Move the
dough onto a lightly floured worktop
and knead with your hands
for about a minute
to bring all the ingredients together.
Don't over-knead. Just 1 minute, to give
shape to the dough. Then cut it in two parts
and form two dough rolls.
They should be shaped like a baguette,
and around 4 to 5 cm thick (2 inches)
max. Transfer them onto a
baking tray line with baking paper.
They should look something like this.
Cook them in a preheated oven at
170C / 340F for about 20 minutes.
Then take them out and let them cool down
for another 20 minutes.
Now we are ready to cut them in
the classic shape of
cantucci toscani.
With a serrated knife
cut diagonally in biscuits
about 1.5 cm / 0.6 inches wide.
Not too thick.
Cut decisively, but gently,
we don't want to break the almonds.
When you cut them all, put them
back on the baking tray, with the cut side
facing up, then bake them again for
about 10 minutes or until they
are golden and crispy on both sides.
Depending on the oven it can take
more or less time.
Look what a great result. These cantucci
are without eggs and without butter.
But have a perfect texture and favour.
Dip them in sweet red wine or warm plant milk
for the best cantucci experience.
Everyone will love them. But now let's move
on to the next biscuit, which is my
favourite of all. They are
amaretti cookies, soft and with loads of
almond flavour. These ones will
leave you speechless.
Also, they are super easy to make.
In a bowl, add
almond flour, powdered sugar,
sugar, baking powder and
mix well to remove lumps.
I use a whisk for this, but you can also
use a wooden spoon or a silicon spatula.
In this recipe we introduce a new ingredient.
AQUAFABA
AQUAfABA is simply the chickpea
soaking water. We use it to
replace egg whites. Don't worry,
you won't notice the chickpea flavour.
Not at all.
In a clean bowl, add the aquafaba
making sure you filter out
chickpea pieces, then whip it up
with an electric whisk.
In a short time it'll turn into a thick foam,
just like whipped egg whites.
To make this step easier,
make sure your aquafaba is cooled in the fridge
then when it's whipped up,
add it to the bowl with the
dry ingredients and mix gently with a
spatula, just like if it
were egg whites.
Like this, gently.
When the aquafaba is
incorporated to the dry ingredients
add the amaretto liqueur and the vanilla
and keep mixing together
till you have almond dough/paste.
Ok, now we are ready to shape it.
Take pieces of the dough
and turn them into small balls.
My advice is to weigh each ball
as they should be around 20 g
03 0.7 oz each, or else the amaretti
won't cook well.
Then pass them trough some
powdered sugar.
They should be completely covered in it.
Now put them on a baking tray
lined with baking paper
and let them rest in the
freezer for 45 min.
If the tray doesn't fit, the use
a plate. Now preheat
the oven at 170C/340F and bake the
amaretti for about 15 minutes.
It could take longer or shorter, it
depends on the oven, so my advice is to
set a timer for 10 minutes,
and then keep an eye on them and take
them out of the oven
when they start cracking on top.
Look how beautiful they are. The Aquafaba worked
beautifully and helped us replace the
egg whites without
any problems.
These amaretti are super soft and gooey
and you'll be very very happy as you
bite through them. Our last recipe
brings us back to Tuscany,
with a biscuits that is traditional
around the Siena area: ricciarelli,
orange and almond cookies that are sweet and gooey,
Our advice is to use almond flour
to make these
but you can also use whole peeled almonds
put them in a blender
and turn them into
fine almond flour.
There shouldn't be any pieces,
just flour. Pulse till you get
the right consistency, but don't let the
almonds warm up too much or else you'll
end up with almond butter.
Then add the sugar to the almond flour.
Then the powdered sugar
candied
orange peel, salt,
baking powder, and keep blending
well, till everything turns into
flour.
There should no be any pieces, or else
the cookies won't cook properly.
Transfer the mix into a bowl and
set aside.
Now take the aquafaba - to chickpea
soaking water - better if refrigerated
and put it into a bowl,
making sure to filter out
the chickpeas.
With an electric whisk, whip up the
aquafaba until it turns into a
very firm foam.
Look at it, it's beautiful.
Now add the foam to the bowl with
the dry ingredients and mix it in
gently with a spatula.
Then add the almond aroma
and the vanilla aroma and keep mixing
for about a minute till everything is
incorporated.
Now move the dough onto a worktop
that you dusted lightly with corn starch.
Make a roll with the dough that is
quite long and about 4 to 5 cm
thick (2 inches).
Now cut the dough into small
discs. Each disc
should weigh between 20 and 23 g.
I advice you to use a scale here,
if the cookies are to big they won't
cook well.
When you cut them all, you can shape them
into the traditional Ricciarelli shape.
First flatten them a bit,
then with the fingers from both hands
push towards the edges. Use index
and little fingers.
Use corn starch if they stick.
Don't flatten too much.
They should look more or less like
these.
I'll show you from the top.
It's not difficult. You just
need to get the hand of it.
When you are don, put them on a plate
and let them rest in the fridge
wrapped in film, overnight.
If you don't have time, then
freeze them for 1 hour. But they'll
cook better if they had time to rest
for longer. Then place them on a baking tray
lined with baking paper,
or with a silicon baking mat.
Leave some space between them, then
sprinkle them with powdered sugar.
They should be completely covered.
Cooked in a preheated over at 170C
340F for about 8 to 12 minutes.
It really depends on the oven though,
so keep an eye on them at around the 6 min mark
and take them out of the oven
when they crack on top. Here they are.
Ready to be eaten. These orange and almond
cookies have a really distinct flavour.
The combo almond and orange is
unbeatable. I hope
you liked the video. Now we
do the dipping test. Here's a
cantuccio toscano, I dip it in the wine and...
...CRUNCH!!! It's just perfect! If you like the
video click the LIKE button or leave us a
comment.
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You can also find all recipes
with step by step pictures
on our website
www.italiaplantbased.com. Buon appetito and see you
in the next video.
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