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Recipe for January – Biscuit of the month from the Almanac for 2022
January 05th, 2022
This is all quoted from The Almanac for 2022………but we thought it was something good to make for Twelfth Night…….we hope you enjoy it too!
Cavallucci di Siena – Italian Twelfth Night Biscuits
This ancient recipe has long been eaten in Tuscany on Twelfth Night. The spicing is strange but wonderful.
Makes 16
Ingredients
50g walnuts
180g self-raising flour
25g diced candied orange peel
1 1/2 teaspoons anise seeds or fennel seeds
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
150g light brown sugar
50 ml water
Method
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees, Gas mark 3. Put the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 20 minutes. Remove, cool and chop, then combine in a bowl with the flour, candied peel, anise or fennel seeds, cinnamon and cloves. Dissolve the sugar in the water in a saucepan, and heat until it has reached 106 – 112 degrees celsius, or the “thread stage” (when drizzled into a glass of water, it forms threads or clumps at the bottom of the glass). Tip the flour mixture into the saucepan and mix with the syrup to form a sticky dough.
Once the dough is cool enough to handle, turn it onto a lightly floured surface, and form into a sausage shape. Divide into 4 pieces then form each piece into 4 ovals, placing them on a baking sheet lined with nonstick baking paper, and flattening them slightly. They do not grow a huge amount so you can probably fit all 16 onto one tray. Bake for 15 minutes, then leave to cool completely.