Plain Biscuit

Here are the ingredients you will need:

Six eggs,


Granulated sugar, nine ounces,


Flour, four ounces,


Potato meal, two ounces,


Taste of lemon peel.

Follow these simple steps:

Stir for at least half an hour the yolks of the eggs with the sugar and a tablespoonful only of the flour and meal, using a ladle. Beat the whites of the eggs until they are quite firm, mix slowly with the first mixture and when they are well incorporated pour over from a sieve the flour and the potato meal, previously dried in the sun or on the fire.

Bake in a tin where the mixture comes about one inch and a half thick, previously greasing the tin with cold butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar mixed with flour.

In these cakes with beaten whites the following method can also be followed: mix and stir first the yolks with the sugar, then put the flour then, after a good kneading, beat the whites until they are firm, pour two tablespoonfuls to soften the mixture, then the rest little by little.

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Biscuits Sultan (Biscotto alla sultana)

Here are the ingredients that you will need:

Granulated sugar, six ounces.


Flour, four ounces.


Potato meal, two ounces.


Currants, three ounces.


Candied fruits, one ounce.


Five eggs.


A taste of lemon peel.


Two tablespoonfuls of brandy.

And now, the directions:

Put first on the fire the currants and the candied fruits cut in very little cubes with as much brandy or cognac as is necessary to cover them: when it boils, light the brandy and let it burn out of the fire until the liquor is all consumed: then remove the currants and candy and let them dry in a folded napkin.

Then stir for half an hour the sugar with the egg-yolks and the taste of lemon peel. Beat well the white of the eggs and pour them on the sugar and yolks.

Add the flour and potato meal letting them fall from a sieve and stir slowly until everything is well mixed together. Add the currants and the pieces of candied fruits and pour the mixing in a smooth mold or in a high and round cake-dish.

Grease the mold or the dish with butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar or flour. Put at once in the oven to avoid that the currants and the candied fruits fall in the oven.

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Soft Biscuits (Biscotti teneri)

You are going to need the following ingredients:

Flour, about two ounces.

Potato meal, same amount.

Sugar, four ounces (¼ lb.)

Sweet almonds 1½ ounce.

Candied orange or angelica, one ounce.

Fruit preserve, one ounce.

Three eggs.

Here are the instructions:

Skin the almonds, cut them in half lengthwise and dry in the sun or at the fire. Pastry cooks usually leave them with the skin but it is much preferable to skin them. Cut in little cubes the candied fruits and the preserve.

Stir for a long while, about half an hour the sugar in the egg-yolks and a little flour then add the white of the eggs well beaten and when every thing is well beaten add the flour, letting it fall from a sieve.

Mix slowly and scatter on the mixing the almonds and the cubes of candied and preserved fruit. Grease and sprinkle the tin box with flour.

Bake in the oven and cut the biscuits the day after. If desired these can also be roasted on both sides.

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Crisp Biscuits (Biscotti croccanti)

You will need the following ingredients:

One pound of flour.


Half a pound granulated sugar.


¼ lb. sweet almonds, whole and shelled, mixed to a few pine-seeds.


A piece of butter, one and a half ounce.


A pinch of anise-seeds.


Five eggs


A pinch of salt.

Now for the instructions:

Leave back the almonds and pine-seeds to add them afterward, and mix everything with four eggs, so as to use the fifth if it is necessary to make a soft dough.

Divide into four cakes half an inch thick and as large as a hand, place them in a receptacle greased with butter and sprinkled with flour. Glaze the cakes with yolk of eggs.

Bake in the oven, but only as much as will still permit cutting the cakes into slices, which you will do the day after, as the crust will then be softened.

Put the slices back in the oven, so that they will be toasted on both sides and you will have the crisp biscuits.

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