No doubt you’ve come across biscotti in your local coffee house – crunchy, dry almond Italian biscuits that are ideal for dunking into a cappuccino. Indeed, I so love the combination that I gave the heroine of my novel The Echoes of Love, Venetia, a daily habit: each morning she picks up a cappuccino and biscotti from a coffee shop on San Marco Square on her way to work. How every day should begin, don’t you agree?

The full name of this popular treat is biscotti di Prato, because they originate from Prato in Tuscany, but the Italians know them as  cantuccini. The traditional recipe incorporates flour, sugar, eggs, pine nuts and almonds, and what gives the biscotti its distinctive crunch is that it is baked twice, first in one roll, and then again once sliced into tranches. They’re served after dinner, softened by dunking in orange juice or the popular Tuscan dessert wine vin santo (translates literally as ‘holy wine’, and it certainly tastes like it!).

Here’s a recipe for you to try at home. The great thing about this biscotti is that it’s a guilt-free treat: no fats or oils are used in the baking. So pile these biscuits high beside your coffee!
500g white bread flour

300g caster sugar

250g whole unpeeled almonds,

50g pine nuts

4 eggs, beaten

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

pinch of salt

1. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and stir in the sugar. Add the eggs and mix until smooth, then add the remaining ingredients.
2. Roll out the dough into a sausage (approximately  2-3 cm in diameter).
3. Place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (360°F) for half an hour.
5. Remove from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 150°C (300°F).
6. Once the roll is cooled sufficiently for you to touch it, cut into 1-centimetres slices and lie them broad-side down on the greaseproof paper.
7. Return to the oven and bake for quarter of an hour.
8. Remove from the oven and cool thoroughly.

The biscotti will keep in an airtight container for at least a week.

Variation: add the rind of one lemon for a zestier biscuit.

Enjoy!