Buon giorno Principessa!

I am still trying to be Italian and in my continuing quest to discover my adoptive roots I headed around to Ana's with mum & Nicky for our second cooking lesson - Amaretti Biscotti! Again the day was filled with giggling, eating & yummy smells filling the air... Here is the recipe and our photographic journal... that we took in the hope we can still be Italian at home!

Ana's Amaretti

Ingredients
1 kilo Almonds
1 doz egg whites
600g Caster sugar
50ml Almond Essence
Icing sugar for dusting

Preset the oven to 190C

1. I thought that I would be picking up the Almond meal from the shops. But no... we made our own. I don't know why, but Nicky & I were a bit blown away by this. We had never even considered doing this, but Ana assures us the Almond meal will become tired if made in advance! Okay first step is to blanch the Almonds for a few mins.
2. Dry the Almonds in the oven- don't toast.
3. Then get your handy Almond mill and get milling. Here is an action shot of Nicky (after our tomato milling last time we are wondering what we will be doing on our next lesson!) grinding through the kilo.


The result is a massive bowl of meal.


4. Gently mix the meal & the castor sugar together. You should try and keep the air in as much as possible. Don't squeeze!
5. Add the Almond Essence to the whites.
6. In a constant stream add the whites to the meal & sugar.... if you are just making this by yourself Ana says to tip it in all at once.
7. Mix the whole lot together gently. We were still trying to keep as much air in the mixture as possible. Ana kept saying "Don't squeeze"!
8. Pinch off a small amount then roll around in your hand until it is a ball. Don't press it together. Here is Ana's hand in action!


9. Toss the ball in icing sugar.


10. Set the balls out on a tray lined with baking paper. Make sure the tray is not too crowded to allow good air flow around each biscotti.
11. Gently push an almond or small piece of glace cherry onto each ball. The ball should flatten a bit. Sometimes we didn't push the almond in enough and it didn't look as good perched on the top.


12. Place tray in oven for 15- 20 mins or until golden brown.

This recipe makes about 88 biscotti. If you don't like a strong marzipan taste (like me) I would reduce the amount of Almond Essence. Nicky knows of a recipe that just uses Vanilla Essence, I think that would be nice.

It didn't take much time to make these tasty morsels which left us ample time to enjoy some lunch... which Ana had been preparing when we arrived in the morning, slow cooked Italian sausage & tomato sauce with home made spaghetti. This is why I want to be Italian... to live la dolce vita! Ciao! T