Tozzetti: an Italian biscotti recipe from Lazio
Tozzetti: A traditional Italian biscotti recipe you’ll fall in love with!
Many people already know cantucci, the traditional recipe for almond biscotti from Tuscany. Tozzetti is a similar recipe but it’s made with hazelnuts. Almost every artisanal bakery across all of Lazio and also Umbria sells these biscotti.
Do you know where the word biscotti comes from? It’s actually a mix of two words, it comes from the Latin bis coctus, meaning “twice cooked” or “twice baked”. Nowadays in Italy biscotti actually refers to cookies, and it includes pretty much all varieties of cookies you can find.+
How do Italians eat tozzetti?
Tozzetti are eaten plain as a sweet snack, but can also be eaten as dessert dipped into a sweet wine. They are amazing with hot chocolate or tea, for an afternoon break, but can also be eaten in the morning for breakfast with a nice and warm cappuccino or coffee. The whole wheat flour provides fiber, the nuts are rich in good fats, proteins, and minerals for a healthy treat. They are also quite low in sugar.
Tozzetti and hazelnut
Hazelnut trees made their way into farming in the Viterbo region, and guess what? People started making these delicious biscotti! The area around Viterbo is famous for its hazelnut orchards, and did you know?The Nutella jar in your pantry probably has hazelnuts grown right there!
Nowadays, more and more farmers are planting hazelnut trees to provide this special ingredient to the famous Ferrero brand.
The area around Lago di Vico, a small lake south of Viterbo, with its volcanic soil, is the perfect place to grow the Tonda Gentile Romana variety. This hazelnut is super resistant and yields a lot, making it ideal for the confectionery industry.
Now, I’m not a big fan of Nutella. It’s a bit too sweet for my taste. But I do buy hazelnuts from that area, especially from a small family-run business in Corchiano, a charming village in the countryside. With their amazing hazelnuts, I make my own nut spread that’s 85% hazelnuts, 10% unrefined sugar, and cocoa. Yum!
Biscotti recipe: how to choose the ingredients
Hazelnuts: The main ingredient, the one that gives tozzetti their distinctive flavor, is obviously the hazelnuts. Try to find the best quality, I’d rather use less, if too expensive, than buy cheap nuts. When you buy a high-quality product, you can even halve the quantity and still get the best flavor.
If you cannot find hazelnuts in your area, you can use other high-quality nuts like walnuts, pecans or almonds.
Flour: I never use white flour, and this recipe is no exception. I always recommend using a less refined flour or mixing some white flour with whole wheat. Make sure your flour does not contain additives if possible. And choose organic flour or natural flour to avoid pesticide residues. I have used a stone-milled flour made with Verna wheat. An ancient variety grown in Tuscany, from Mulino Val D’Orcia, that makes high quality organic flours.
Sugar: This recipe contains a small amount of sugar compared to many other cookies or biscotti recipes, and to me, that makes a huge difference. I use unrefined beet sugar, but you can use any high-quality sugar you can find. Do not use sweeteners or sugar substitutes.
Eggs: Eggs should always be organic and pasture-raised if possible. Eggs from intensive farming are filled with chemicals and are anything but healthy. In some countries like the US, the eggshell might even be treated with a chemical. The shell is porous, which means that what’s put on the outside will eventually seep through, and you’ll end up eating it. Try to find a local farmer that sells fresh, high-quality eggs to get all the amazing nutritional value from them.
Italian biscotti recipe: the traditional way of making it
I have learned to measure all the ingredients when I started this blog. Before that, I have never weighed or measured anything when cooking. This is because my mom and my grandma always taught me how to eyeball the quantities.
If you talk to an Italian nonna, she will never say be able to provide exact measurements for a recipe.
When making traditional cookies like these Tozzetti, or other like wine ciambelline cookies, the amount of flour is never the same. In Italian, we say use “quella che si tira”, which literally means the amount the liquid ingredients will absorb. So you may find recipes that call for 1 glass of this or a glass of that and no specific amount of flour. You get to know the amount by touch.
I love the fact that people mastered recipes just by touching, seeing, or tasting! And I am so grateful this knowledge has been passed down to me by my beloved nonna!
Biscotti recipe:how to make it
This recipe does not require special equipment. A bowl is all you need! There are four main steps in making tozzetti:
- mixing the ingredients: sugar, butter and eggs can be whipped with a for, a whisk or an electric mixer until foamy.
- adding the flour: before adding the flour, mix in the baking powder so you won’t get any lump. Once the flour is well mixed (you can also sieve it if you have time) add it to the egg mixture 1/3 at at time and mix with a spoon or a spatula. When the dough has the consistency of the ear lobe, you can pour it onto the counter and knead for 20/30 seconds. I recommend to set aside around 50gr of flour to be added in the end only if needed. It’s best to have a softer dough than a stiffer one. The first can be saved by simply adding more flour. The other one I’m afraid it’s quite impossible to adjust.
- baking the logs: once the dough is ready you can shape it into logs and bake at 180° for around 25/30 minutes or until golden brown.
- cut and bake again: Once the logs are slightly cooled down and you can handle them, cut each into diagonal slices. Put the slices back on the tray and bake at 180° for around 10 minutes.
Tozzetti: an Italian biscotti recipe from Lazio
Ingredients
- 200 gr white flour
- 180 gr whole wheat flour
- 80 gr of butter or oil
- 150 gr of sugar
- 200 gr of toasted hazelnuts
- 12 gr of baking powder
- 20 ml of rum optional
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180° (350F).
- In a bowl mix the flour and the baking powder well and set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar and add the melted butter or oil.
- Add the lemon zest. the hazelnuts and the rum.
- Add the flour 1/3 at a time and mix with a spatula.
- Once the flour is mixed, pour the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a few seconds.
- Divide the dough into three and shape it into logs.
- Cook the logs for around 30 mins or until golden brown.
- Let the logs cool down on to a wire rack then cut them into slices.
- Put the slices back in the over at 180°C (356F) for around 10 minutes.
