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Pitti Pi

A traditional biscuit from the southern region of Italy, Calabria. Laced with chocolate and spices, they are perfect for Christmas sharing.
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Servings: 60 biscuits
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 250 g roasted almonds, chopped
  • 1 cup honey
  • 3 eggs
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • finely grated rind of 1 lemon
  • finely grated rind of 1 orange
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1 ¾ cups self-raising flour
  • 1 ¾ cups plain flour
  • extra plain flour, for dusting
Icing
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup icing sugar

Method
 

  1. Mix the nuts, honey, eggs, olive oil, sugar, cocoa powder, grated rinds and spices into a large bowl.
  2. Add the flours and fold through with a wooden spoon, as the mixture thickens your hands are the best utensils to get this job done. Fold up and over until you have a slightly sticky and thick dough.
  3. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160 fan forced) and line 2 oven trays with baking paper.
  5. Dust a clean surface with a little extra flour. Cut off around 2 cups worth of dough at a time and roll into an oblong shape around 1½ cm thick. Trim the edges and cut diagonally at 5cm intervals one way, and then the other to make diamond shape biscuits.
  6. Place onto prepared oven trays allowing 2cm gap in between for spreading and bake for 15 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove and set aside on wire racks to cool. Repeat with all the dough.
Make the Icing
  1. Put all the ingredients into a saucepan over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until it is reduced by half.
  2. Working quickly, brush the hot icing mixture onto the biscuits, painting back and forth with a pastry brush, covering the tops completely. You will have more icing than you need, but I find that making a smaller amount leads to the mixture seizing. If this happens, just add a tbsp of water, put back on a low heat and stir until smooth again.
  3. Leave to dry for one hour, or until completely set. Once dry, the icinghas a marbled effect. 
  4. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

This recipe makes a large batch, as is traditionally done so there is plenty to give as gifts.  Feel free to halve the recipe if you like, but these biscuits keep for months so having more than you need isn't really an issue.  They can be frozen in sealed containers too.