Cantucci

Cantucci are a Tuscan baked sweet made by baking a dough mixed with whole almonds into long, narrow logs and slicing them diagonally while still warm. The cut face of each slender slice shows a pattern of sliced nuts. Small ones are called cantuccini, and the artisanal products of Prato are also called biscotti di Prato.

Although they look very similar, they differ in the fat added and in whether they are dried further after slicing. In addition, products sold under the Tuscan name are subject to a standard that specifies their production area and ingredients.

Slicing dough baked in logs

The dough is made by combining eggs and sugar, then adding flour, almonds, and other ingredients and bringing it together. The whole almonds are distributed throughout, and the dough is shaped into long logs, set on a baking sheet, brushed with egg wash or similar, and baked. Unlike cookies shaped one by one, a long, narrow log is baked first and then cut diagonally while still warm. Because the nuts are cut together with the dough, the cut surface shows a pattern of pale dough and almonds.

In recipes (the proportions of ingredients and the method of making) that return the slices to the oven once more to dry, moisture escapes from the cut surfaces as well, giving a hard, crunchy finish. On the other hand, the explanatory material on Prato’s traditional food products and the home recipe published by a producer also include a process that ends with cutting the logs after baking them once.

The word biscotti derives from “twice-cooked,” but in modern Italian it broadly refers to biscuits in general. Therefore, not every sweet called biscotti is necessarily baked twice.

Sliced cantuccini-style sweets. Pieces of nuts can be seen in the cut surfaces. Photo: Anna.Massini, 2024-12-15, location unknown. Original image / CC BY 4.0. Reduced-size version from the distributing site; no additional processing.

The Prato formulation and the specification for the Tuscan protected name

The formulation handed down by Antonio Mattei of Prato centers on five ingredients: wheat flour, sugar, eggs, almonds, and pine nuts. No butter or oil is added separately. The eggs and the nuts themselves contain fat, but the formulation differs from that of sablés, which mix in plenty of butter.

The protected name “Cantuccini Toscani / Cantucci Toscani,” whose production area covers all of Tuscany, has a specification that adds butter, honey, and leavening agents to eggs, sugar, wheat flour, and whole, skin-on almonds. Compared with Prato’s five-ingredient formulation, the added fat creates differences in how they melt in the mouth, how they snap, and the fine air bubbles in the dough.

The name was registered as an EU PGI (IGP in Italian) in 2016, with almonds set at 20% or more of the finished product and butter at 1.5% or more of the dough. Almonds must also make up 17% or more of the dough before baking, and the specification requires them to reach 20% or more in the baked product. The butter percentage is relative to the weight of the dough before baking. Even under the protected name’s specification, a second drying bake after slicing is optional.

Within Tuscany, some versions in Massa Marittima add a lemon aroma. Furthermore, in the Viterbo area of the Lazio region there is a related sweet, tozzetti, which is baked and then sliced. Tozzetti use hazelnuts. Their shape resembles that of almond cantucci, but both the nut used and the region where the sweet is traditional are different.

Several kinds of biscotti displayed in a shop. According to the photographer’s description, the third row from the left is cantucci. Photo: Gobonobo, 2021-05-14, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA (coordinates). Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. The publisher’s Exif data records the use of GIMP; the specific changes are unknown. Reduced-size version from the distributing site; no additional processing.

A name that goes back to the end of a loaf

Cantuccio is a word associated with corners and the ends of a loaf of bread. In old texts, it also referred to sweet bread sliced thin and dried, or to the crusty ends of a loaf. A 1629 cookbook mentions “cantucci of Pisa” at the table, and 17th-century records also describe dipping them in wine. Whether they had the same almond formulation as today is unknown, but the name has long been used for sweets that are sliced thin and dried.

In Prato, a biscuit recipe survives in an 18th-century manuscript by Amadio Baldanzi. In 1858, Antonio Mattei opened a workshop and developed almond biscotti. Recognition at exhibitions in London and Paris, along with the blue paper bag, also helped spread the town’s specialty.

The Antonio Mattei shop in Prato. A sign displaying the name of the sweets can be seen. Photo: Massimilianogalardi, 2011-04-23, Prato, Italy. Original image / CC BY-SA 3.0. Reduced-size version from the distributing site. Whether it was processed at the time of original publication is unknown; no additional processing this time.

Dipping a slice in vin santo

Dipping one slice at a time briefly into sweet vin santo after a meal, just before eating it, is a well-known way to enjoy them in Tuscany. Soaked with wine, the dough softens and crumbles, and the flavor of the wine layers over the aroma of nuts and egg. They are also paired with coffee or cappuccino. Whether there is a second drying bake and whether butter is included change how they snap, and also make a difference in how they absorb the wine.

Glossary