{
  "slug": "cantucci-toscani",
  "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/",
  "name": "Cantucci toscani",
  "english": "Tuscan almond biscuits",
  "aka": [
    "Cantuccini toscani",
    "Cantuccini Toscani IGP",
    "Cantucci Toscani IGP",
    "cantucci",
    "cantuccini",
    "biscotti di Prato",
    "Tuscan almond biscuits"
  ],
  "summary": "Tuscany's almond biscuits, protected since 2016: a dough of wheat flour, whole unpeeled almonds, sugar, eggs, butter and honey, baked in logs and cut on a slant as their PGI specification sets, then dried in the oven a second time.",
  "essentials": [
    "Wheat flour, whole unpeeled almonds, sugar, eggs, butter and wildflower honey, with a raising agent: no other nuts, spices, oils or additives.",
    "Almonds make up at least 17% of the dough and 20% of the baked biscuits; butter is the only fat.",
    "Shaped into logs, glazed and baked for up to 40 minutes, then cut across on a slant.",
    "Each piece at most 10 cm long and 15 g in weight; a second bake of up to 20 minutes dries them further.",
    "Kept dry in a closed tin, and traditionally dipped in vin santo to soften them."
  ],
  "diet": [
    "vegetarian"
  ],
  "region": {
    "slug": "toscana",
    "name": "Toscana",
    "url": "https://nonnario.com/regions/toscana/"
  },
  "place": "Firenze",
  "coords": [
    43.77,
    11.256
  ],
  "course": {
    "id": "dolci",
    "it": "Dolci",
    "en": "Desserts"
  },
  "level": {
    "id": "codified",
    "name": "EU-codified",
    "it": "Disciplinare europeo",
    "description": "The dish itself is protected by an EU specification (TSG, PDO or PGI) that fixes how it is made.",
    "url": "https://nonnario.com/method/#level-codified"
  },
  "status": "checked",
  "published": "2026-10-27",
  "checked": "2026-10-27",
  "cooked": null,
  "provenance": {
    "by": "European Union",
    "reference": "PGI ‘Cantuccini Toscani / Cantucci Toscani’, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/81; production specification published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 40 of 18 February 2016",
    "year": 2016
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "label": "EU Official Journal C 263 of 11 August 2015: the application to register the PGI, with its single document (EUR-Lex, Italian)",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52015XC0811(01)"
    },
    {
      "label": "Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/81, registering the PGI (EUR-Lex, Italian)",
      "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32016R0081"
    },
    {
      "label": "Consorzio per la Tutela dei Cantuccini Toscani IGP: the production specification of the PGI, as published by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2016 (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.assocantuccini.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Disciplinare_cantuccini_toscani___cantucci_toscani_26.01.2016.pdf"
    },
    {
      "label": "Consorzio per la Tutela dei Cantuccini Toscani IGP: who we are, and the history of cantuccini (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.assocantuccini.org/chi-siamo/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Dissapore: the perfect recipe, cantucci, 2012 (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.dissapore.com/grande-notizia/la-ricetta-perfetta-cantucci/"
    },
    {
      "label": "GialloZafferano: cantucci (Italian)",
      "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Cantucci.html"
    }
  ],
  "story": [
    "Cantucci, or cantuccini, are the almond biscuits of Tuscany, made all over the region and dipped in vin santo. The word ‘cantuccio’ first appears in 1691, in the third edition of the Crusca dictionary, as a sliced biscuit of fine flour, sugar and egg white. In the seventeenth century Francesco Redi sent cantucci with his letters from Pisa, and in the second half of the nineteenth century the historian Ferri tied the name to biscuits with almonds. The producers' consortium traces cantucci to the Medici court in Florence, in the second half of the sixteenth century, when they still had no almonds; almond cantuccini have been made all over Tuscany, on an ever larger scale, since the twentieth century. They are also called biscotti di Prato, and one account dates the classic Prato version to the pastry maker Antonio Mattei, in 1861.",
    "‘Cantuccini Toscani’ or ‘Cantucci Toscani’ has been a PGI since 2016, by Regulation (EU) 2016/81: only biscuits made and packed in Tuscany under the specification, and inspected, may carry the name. The specification sets the ingredients per kilo of dough: wheat flour; whole, unpeeled sweet almonds, at least 17% of the dough and 20% of the baked biscuits; eggs, with at least 3% yolk; butter, at least 1.5%; sugar, 20–40%; wildflower honey, 0.3–1.5%; and a raising agent. Salt, whole milk and flavourings are optional, glucose syrup or invert sugar may go only in the glaze, and nothing else is allowed. The logs are glazed and baked for up to 40 minutes at 100–300 °C, cut on a slant and, if wished, dried for up to 20 minutes more; each piece is at most 10 cm long and weighs at most 15 g, and the biscuits are slightly crisp, with 3–7% moisture. The specification sets limits, not a household recipe. The quantities and method here are a published home recipe, listed under Sources, with the changes the specification requires: wildflower honey instead of chestnut honey, no citrus zest, a glaze of egg beaten with water and sugar instead of egg alone, and narrower logs, so that each piece stays within the size and weight allowed. By our calculation the batch is just within the limits, with almonds about 18% of the dough and 20–21% of the dried biscuits."
  ],
  "serves": 90,
  "minutes": {
    "handsOn": 33,
    "cooking": 57,
    "resting": 70
  },
  "plan": "About 2 hours 45 minutes, most of it resting and baking: 15 minutes for the oven to heat, 15 to toast the almonds and make the dough, 30 of rest, 15 to shape and glaze the logs, 20–30 minutes in the oven, 10 to cool, 10 to cut, 20 more in the oven and half an hour to cool completely. By our estimate the quantities make about 90 small cantucci, on two trays; each serving here is one cantuccio. Use the servings control to halve them.",
  "equipment": [
    "Kitchen scale",
    "Two baking trays, about 30 cm by 40 cm, and baking paper",
    "Two large bowls, a fork or whisk and a wooden spoon",
    "Small pan, to melt the butter",
    "Pastry brush",
    "Serrated knife and a chopping board",
    "A tin with a tight lid, for keeping them"
  ],
  "ingredients": [
    {
      "group": "The dough",
      "items": [
        {
          "quantity": 500,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "soft wheat flour, type 00",
          "note": null,
          "text": "500 g soft wheat flour, type 00",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 375,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "granulated sugar",
          "note": null,
          "text": "375 g granulated sugar",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 250,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "whole almonds, shelled but not skinned",
          "note": "sweet almonds with their brown skins, never blanched, sliced or chopped",
          "text": "250 g whole almonds, shelled but not skinned (sweet almonds with their brown skins, never blanched, sliced or chopped)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 4,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "eggs",
          "note": "medium, about 50 g each out of the shell; pasteurised if you can find them, as the specification asks",
          "text": "4 eggs (medium, about 50 g each out of the shell; pasteurised if you can find them, as the specification asks)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 50,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "unsalted butter",
          "note": "melted and left to cool until lukewarm",
          "text": "50 g unsalted butter (melted and left to cool until lukewarm)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 10,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "wildflower honey",
          "note": "millefiori, the specification's honey",
          "text": "10 g wildflower honey (millefiori, the specification's honey)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 8,
          "unit": "g",
          "item": "baking powder",
          "note": "half an Italian sachet of lievito per dolci",
          "text": "8 g baking powder (half an Italian sachet of lievito per dolci)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pinch",
          "item": "fine salt",
          "note": null,
          "text": "1 pinch fine salt",
          "recipe": null
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "group": "For the glaze",
      "items": [
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "pc",
          "item": "egg",
          "note": "beaten with the water and sugar: the specification's glaze is a mixture of water, eggs and a sweetener",
          "text": "1 egg (beaten with the water and sugar: the specification's glaze is a mixture of water, eggs and a sweetener)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "tbsp",
          "item": "water",
          "note": "our guide: the specification gives no amount",
          "text": "1 tbsp water (our guide: the specification gives no amount)",
          "recipe": null
        },
        {
          "quantity": 1,
          "unit": "tsp",
          "item": "granulated sugar",
          "note": "our guide: the specification gives no amount",
          "text": "1 tsp granulated sugar (our guide: the specification gives no amount)",
          "recipe": null
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "method": [
    {
      "phase": "The dough",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 1,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-1",
          "title": "Heat the oven",
          "text": "Heat the oven to 220 °C, static (top and bottom heat). Meanwhile weigh all the ingredients and line the two trays with baking paper.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": 15,
          "celsius": 220,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "The oven has reached 220 °C: its light has gone off, or an oven thermometer reads it.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 2,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-2",
          "title": "Toast the almonds, briefly",
          "text": "Spread the almonds on one of the lined trays and toast them for 2 minutes, no longer. Take them out, tip them into a bowl, and turn the oven down to 180 °C, ready for the logs.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": 2,
          "celsius": 220,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "The almonds are warm and fragrant, and have not changed colour.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 3,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-3",
          "title": "Melt the butter",
          "text": "Melt the butter in the small pan over low heat, then take it off the heat and let it cool while you mix the rest.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 3,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": "low",
          "official": false,
          "check": "Fully melted, with no solid pieces, and only lukewarm to the touch.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 4,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-4",
          "title": "Mix the dry ingredients",
          "text": "In a large bowl, mix the flour, the sugar and the baking powder, then add the almonds.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 2,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "The baking powder is evenly mixed in, with no lumps.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 5,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-5",
          "title": "Beat the eggs with the salt, honey and butter",
          "text": "In the second bowl, beat the 4 eggs with the pinch of salt and the honey, then stir in the lukewarm melted butter.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 2,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "Smooth and even, with the honey dissolved.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 6,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-6",
          "title": "Bring the dough together",
          "text": "Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix, first with the spoon and then with your hands, until no dry flour is left.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": [
            3,
            5
          ],
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "An even dough, full of almonds, that sticks to your hands a little: it should.",
          "tips": [
            "If it stays dry and crumbly, work in an egg yolk. The specification allows extra yolk, or whole milk, but no wine."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 7,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-7",
          "title": "Rest the dough",
          "text": "Cover the bowl and leave the dough at room temperature for 30 minutes. The oven settles at 180 °C meanwhile.",
          "kind": "rest",
          "minutes": 30,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "The oven is at 180 °C.",
          "tips": []
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "phase": "The logs and the first bake",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 8,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-8",
          "title": "Shape the logs",
          "text": "Shape the dough into logs on the baking trays, which may be greased so that the logs come away easily.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 10,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": true,
          "check": "Six even logs, about 3 cm wide, three to a tray and well apart.",
          "tips": [
            "Our guide: divide the dough into 6 pieces of about 230 g and, with wet hands (the dough is sticky), roll each into a log about 28 cm long and 3 cm wide. Leave them round, with no need to flatten them: they settle flatter as they bake. Lay them on the baking paper, 3 to a tray, along its length and well apart, since they spread.",
            "Our guide: logs this narrow keep each cantuccio within the specification's limits, at most 10 cm long, 3 cm high and 15 g in weight. Wider logs give bigger pieces."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 9,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-9",
          "title": "Glaze the logs",
          "text": "Before baking, brush the logs with a mixture of water, egg and sweetener, which gives them their crisp crust, darker than the inside.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 2,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": true,
          "check": "Every log is evenly coated, with no pools of glaze on the paper.",
          "tips": [
            "Our guide: beat the glaze egg with the tablespoon of water and the teaspoon of sugar until the sugar has dissolved, then brush it thinly over the tops and sides of the logs.",
            "The specification also allows a glaze of water alone, sprayed on the logs in the oven: see the variants."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 10,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-10",
          "title": "Bake the logs",
          "text": "Bake the logs in the preheated oven: the specification allows 100 °C–300 °C, for no more than 40 minutes.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": [
            20,
            30
          ],
          "celsius": 180,
          "heat": null,
          "official": true,
          "check": "The logs are golden outside and no longer feel soft when pressed.",
          "tips": [
            "Our guide: both trays at once, at 180 °C static, on two shelves near the middle, for 20–30 minutes. Swap the trays halfway, so both colour evenly.",
            "Our guide: logs this narrow bake faster than wide ones. Look from 20 minutes and go by the check, not the clock."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 11,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-11",
          "title": "Let them cool a little",
          "text": "Take the trays out and leave the logs for about 10 minutes, until you can handle them. Keep the oven at 180 °C.",
          "kind": "rest",
          "minutes": 10,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "Still warm, and firm enough to lift without bending.",
          "tips": [
            "Do not let them go cold: cold logs crumble under the knife."
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "phase": "Cutting and the second bake",
      "intro": null,
      "steps": [
        {
          "n": 12,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-12",
          "title": "Cut on a slant",
          "text": "Once baked, cut the logs across, on a slant, to give the cantucci their shape.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 10,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": true,
          "check": "Weigh one: the specification allows 15 g at most, and at most 10 cm long, 3 cm high and 2.8 cm thick. If yours is heavier, cut the rest a little thinner.",
          "tips": [
            "Our guide: move one log at a time to the board and cut it with the serrated knife, at a slight slant, into slices about 1.5 cm thick, with a firm sawing stroke.",
            "Our guide: lay the slices back on the trays as you go, on a cut side, with a little space between them."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 13,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-13",
          "title": "Bake them a second time",
          "text": "Return the cantucci to the oven for no more than 20 minutes, to dry them further.",
          "kind": "passive",
          "minutes": 20,
          "celsius": 180,
          "heat": null,
          "official": true,
          "check": "Both cut faces are dry and pale golden. They are still a little soft while hot and turn crisp as they cool.",
          "tips": [
            "Our guide: both trays at 180 °C, the slices lying flat. After 10 minutes turn each one over and swap the trays, then give them 10 minutes more.",
            "The specification makes this second bake optional: see the variants."
          ]
        },
        {
          "n": 14,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-14",
          "title": "Leave them to cool",
          "text": "Leave the cantucci on the trays until completely cold.",
          "kind": "rest",
          "minutes": 30,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": "Cold right through and crisp: one snaps cleanly.",
          "tips": []
        },
        {
          "n": 15,
          "url": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/#step-15",
          "title": "Serve, or store",
          "text": "Serve them on their own, with tea or coffee, or, as tradition has it, to dip in vin santo, which softens them. Keep the rest in a tin with a tight lid, away from damp.",
          "kind": "active",
          "minutes": 1,
          "celsius": null,
          "heat": null,
          "official": false,
          "check": null,
          "tips": []
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "quick": [
    "Toast 250 g of whole unpeeled almonds for 2 minutes at 220 °C, then turn the oven down to 180 °C.",
    "Mix 500 g of type 00 flour, 375 g of sugar, 8 g of baking powder and the almonds.",
    "Beat 4 eggs with a pinch of salt, 10 g of wildflower honey and 50 g of melted butter, combine with the dry ingredients and rest, covered, for 30 minutes.",
    "Shape 6 logs about 3 cm wide on lined trays, brush them with an egg beaten with a little water and sugar, and bake at 180 °C for 20–30 minutes, until golden and firm.",
    "Cool for 10 minutes, then cut on a slight slant into slices about 1.5 cm thick, each at most 15 g.",
    "Bake again for 10 minutes on each side, then leave them to cool completely and keep them in a tin."
  ],
  "when": {
    "text": "Especially for feasts and holidays, when bakeries all over Italy make them.",
    "source": {
      "label": "Consorzio per la Tutela dei Cantuccini Toscani IGP: the production specification of the PGI, as published by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2016 (Italian)",
      "url": "https://www.assocantuccini.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Disciplinare_cantuccini_toscani___cantucci_toscani_26.01.2016.pdf"
    }
  },
  "keeps": {
    "text": "In a tin with a tight lid, away from damp, they stay crisp for up to 30 days; once they have gone soft they cannot be saved. The shaped raw logs can be frozen for about a month: thaw them in the fridge, then bake them twice as usual.",
    "source": {
      "label": "GialloZafferano: cantucci (Italian)",
      "url": "https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Cantucci.html"
    }
  },
  "variants": [
    {
      "name": "Baked once",
      "text": "The specification makes the second bake optional: once cut, the cantucci may be left to cool without drying them again, so long as they end slightly crisp, with 3–7% moisture.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Consorzio per la Tutela dei Cantuccini Toscani IGP: the production specification of the PGI, as published by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2016 (Italian)",
        "url": "https://www.assocantuccini.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Disciplinare_cantuccini_toscani___cantucci_toscani_26.01.2016.pdf"
      },
      "recipe": null
    },
    {
      "name": "With a steam glaze",
      "text": "Instead of brushing the logs before baking, spray them with water in the oven: the specification allows either way of giving them their darker, crisp crust.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Consorzio per la Tutela dei Cantuccini Toscani IGP: the production specification of the PGI, as published by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2016 (Italian)",
        "url": "https://www.assocantuccini.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Disciplinare_cantuccini_toscani___cantucci_toscani_26.01.2016.pdf"
      },
      "recipe": null
    },
    {
      "name": "With orange or lemon zest",
      "text": "The grated zest of an orange, or of a lemon, mixed in with the dry ingredients. The specification allows no zest, so these are not PGI cantucci.",
      "source": {
        "label": "Dissapore: the perfect recipe, cantucci, 2012 (Italian)",
        "url": "https://www.dissapore.com/grande-notizia/la-ricetta-perfetta-cantucci/"
      },
      "recipe": null
    }
  ],
  "variantOf": [],
  "usedIn": [],
  "mistakes": [
    "Using blanched, sliced or chopped almonds. The specification wants them whole and with their skins, and allows no almond flour.",
    "Adding other nuts, spices, citrus zest or liqueur: the specification allows nothing beyond its list, with only salt, whole milk and flavourings as extras.",
    "Swapping the butter for oil or another fat: butter is the only fat the specification allows.",
    "Shaping wide logs: the pieces come out longer than 10 cm and heavier than 15 g, outside the specification.",
    "Leaving the logs to go cold before cutting them: they crumble under the knife.",
    "Drying them for more than 20 minutes the second time, the specification's limit.",
    "Keeping them near bread or anywhere damp: they go soft, and soft cantucci cannot be saved."
  ],
  "abroad": [
    "Type 00 is a fine soft-wheat flour: plain flour (all-purpose in the US) is the nearest equivalent.",
    "Buy natural whole almonds with their brown skins (sold as raw or natural almonds), not blanched ones.",
    "Italian baking powder (lievito per dolci) comes in 16 g sachets: use 8 g of any baking powder, about 2 level teaspoons.",
    "Millefiori is wildflower, or mixed-flower, honey.",
    "Vin santo is Tuscany's own wine for dipping them; the specification speaks of dipping them in liqueur wines in general, so another dessert wine will do."
  ],
  "image": null,
  "video": null,
  "versions": {
    "page": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani/",
    "markdown": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani.md",
    "json": "https://nonnario.com/recipes/cantucci-toscani.json"
  },
  "cite": "Cite the recipe's page and the month its sources were checked; for the official text itself, cite the document listed under its sources."
}