The so-called “cousins” of the well-known cantucci, the tozzetti are traditional dried rhombus or trapezoidal-shaped pastries with a genuine flavor that differ from many other biscuits with the same shape, because inside there are the highest quality hazelnuts from the Cimini Mountains .
A typical Caprarola dessert always present on the table to sweetly conclude a lunch or dinner. There are those who prefer to soak the tozzetti in white or red wine, those who prefer them strictly natural to appreciate the typical fragrance of the tozzetti and the aromas contained or those who add a little liqueur.
The birth and spread of tozzetti, a delicious typical product of Tuscia, took place especially in the 1950s when hectares and hectares of hazel groves were planted throughout Tuscia.
The territory of Caprarola, immersed in green hazelnut woods, produces one of the best qualities of hazelnuts on the Italian market and in fact, not surprisingly, in late August, to celebrate this excellent product, you have the opportunity to taste this excellent fruit of Tuscia with the famous “Hazelnut Festival”.
Now let’s see how they prepare.
Ingredients
500 g of flour
100 ml of olive oil
3 eggs
300 g of sugar
300 g of peeled hazelnuts
1/2 sachet of yeast
Lemon peel
Process
We take a bowl and add the sugar together with the eggs and knead the dough with the help of a wooden spoon. Then add the oil and the powders (flour and yeast) well sieved together with the whole hazelnuts, carefully mixing the dough and flavoring it with lemon zest. By handling the dough, we try to obtain a very soft dough, similar to that for bread, and shape it giving it the shape of a loaf, 7-8 cm wide and about 2 high. Place it in the pan with the bottom covered with parchment paper and brush the surface with the whole beaten egg.
We bake the loaf at about 160 ° for about twenty minutes, until it assumes a beautiful translucent amber color. Once ready, take it out of the oven and, before completely cooling, cut the loaf transversely so as to form little pieces more than 1 cm wide.
We lay the tozzetti on the baking tray, always lined with parchment paper, resting one by one on the cutting surface, and bake them again for a few minutes always at 160 °, so as to reach a light roasting also on the sides of the biscuit.
Let them cool and serve them on the table, perhaps accompanying them with a good glass of wine.
Enjoy your meal!
Photo by Michela Di Pietro