Hard Italian Biscuits

Cavalucci di Siena are a speciality of Tuscany; traditional festive fare named for the little horses of the Palio, the famous horse race of Siena. Stripey Cats are supporters of the Snails although the race itself is not something that vegans should ever support.

I'd never made these before and I think I may have left them in the oven just a touch too long. They are very hard, more like biscotti than cookies but the flavour is wonderful.

Ingredients.

350 grams of plain flour
two teaspoons baking powder
100 grams roughly chopped walnuts (I used mixed nuts)
50 grams of candied peel (use a good quality)
two teaspoons of ground aniseed
two teaspoons of ground cinnamon
300 grams of sugar (I used some muscovado in the mix, delicious but the colour was misleading.)
185 mls of water

Preheat the oven to 150C

Sieve the flour and baking powder together, add the peel, nuts and spices and mix up.

Put the sugar and water into a heavy bottomed pan, bring to the boil, turn the heat to medium and cook for five minutes or so to make a pale syrup. Remove from heat.

Add the dry mix and stir with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough.

Line two trays with parchment paper, greased greaseproof or rice paper.

Place small tablespoons of dough, about 5 cm in diameter with a little room between them for expansion. The mixture is hot but cools quickly. I portioned the dough out and then went back and gently shaped the biscuits with my hands although I have seen recipes that suggest using a rolling pin and cutters. Don't make them too big, you should get at least 16 from this quantity.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until they are lightly golden, slightly firm, and a bit puffed up. Don't over bake, they will be terribly hard. If you've made many more than 16 reduce the cooking time to allow for the smaller volume of your cavalucci.

Store in an airtight tin for up to a week. You'll need to dip them in coffee or wine to eat, although they can be softened a bit by warming them in an oven for a few minutes.