Last Friday I found myself working on a spontaneous housewarming box overnight for my only two local friends. They bought a house at the end of May and since then we’ve been missing each other’s availability windows. They finally had time for me on Saturday.
I met these two friends when I used to hawk cookies at weekend vendor markets. They became my cookie regulars when cookies were the only things I made. When I got my Sídhe contract I stopped selling cookies, but instead I would text them whenever I baked anything and they would buy half my batch. This has become a mutually beneficial relationship, as they love everything I make, and I simply cannot eat everything I make.
At the time of putting the box together I was at the very end of my lunar month and felt incredibly low energy. But I still wanted the impact to be up to my standards. I didn’t want to repeat a recipe they had already tried. And I wanted to include corn, knowing that one of my two friends loves it especially.
Mars suggested trasmuting my idea from earlier that week (sweet corn and marshmallow) into the form of biscotti, and then covering them with star sprinkles. I was in a receptive mindset and it sounded like it would come together with extraordinary ease. And the flavor pairing is tried and true.
They came out as well as I imagined they would. Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients
85 g cornmeal
30 g blanched almond flour
95 g all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
40 g heavy cream
55 g good extra-virgin olive oil
75 g sugar (I used golden sugar for the color)
1 egg
Handful of marshmallows
Method
Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Weigh the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir together. Create a well in the center.
Separately, weigh the wet ingredients into a smaller bowl (even a mug will do). Mix them together until homogenous.
Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients and combine everything with a few concise strokes. If things get sticky and won’t mix together easily, get your hands in there.
If the dough is too wet, add some flour. If it’s too dry and crumbly, add some cream. This really depends on your local humidity so don’t be surprised if you need to play around a little bit. You want to end up with a dough that holds together easily, but isn’t super wet.
Once the dough comes together, press it into a flat shape and smush some marshmallows into it. Then fold it in half with the marshmallows on the inside.
Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a long log about 2 inches in diameter. Lay the two logs down side by side on the baking sheet and press them down until they’re no more than an inch tall.
Sprinkle starfetti all over the tops of the cookie logs, and press them gently into the dough so they stay put.
Bake the logs of dough for 20 minutes, then take them out of the oven. They should have some expansion cracks, but the outside should be set.
Increase the oven temperature to 400˚F. Set a timer for 20 minutes and let the cookies cool down while the oven heats up.
When the timer goes off, use a serrated knife to slice the cookies up. I like a half inch thickness, but some people like them even thicker.
Arrange the cookies on the baking sheet so that they’re lying flat with the cut sides facing up. In this process some of them will break. That’s normal.
Bake for 8-12 minutes, less if you like your cookies soft and more if you like them crisp.
The biscotti may not turn golden brown even as they become very crisp. They also may not be firm until they cool down to room temperature after leaving the oven. Exercise trust in your intuition and everything will work out just fine.
Store cantucci in a container that can breathe, like a bakery box or a paper bag, rather than in an airtight container. Their texture benefits from humidity.
