Fette Biscottate - Rusks/French Toasts/Crispbakes

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 30

proving time 3

Total Time 4 30

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

500 grams Flour
170 grams Milk (at room temperature)
100 grams Water (at room temperature)
50 grams Sugar
50 grams Butter (soften)
7 grams Dry Yeast
2 tbsp Honey
1 pinch Salt
15 grams Cocoa powder + 3 tbsp Milk
Egg wash (1 egg + some milk) for the surface

Instructions

Add milk, water, dry yeast, honey and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix everything with a whisk.
Add the flour and turn on the stand mixer (with the hook) to start kneading all the ingredients.
When a dough is formed pour the salt and keep kneading.
Lastly, add the soften butter a bit at a time. Wait until the butter is completely absorbed into the dough before adding another piece. Continue to knead until the dough is smooth.
Remove the dough from the bowl and transfer it on a table. Cut the dough into two pieces of approximately the same size. Put one of the two halves back in the stand mixer. It is now time to make the cocoa dough.
Pour the cocoa powder in a glass with 3 tbsp of milk and stir until the cocoa is dissolved (you can warm up the milk to help the process). Add the mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer and knead again until the cocoa is completely absorbed into the dough. If the dough is too dry, you can add other 1 or 2 tbsp of milk.
Remove the cocoa dough from the bowl and transfer it on a table. Shape both the white and the cocoa dough into a ball and let them proving until they have doubled in size (approximately 2-3 hours)
Once both the white and the dark doughs have proven, transfer them on the table and roll them with a rolling pin. You must give both the doughs a square shape of approximately the same size.
Overlap the white and the dark square (the dark dough must go inside the white dough), and gently press with your finger to make them stick to each other.
Roll up the dough and shape it into a sausage (the dark dough must remain inside). Put the dough into a loaf pan (14x26cm) and let it proving again for approximately one hour
When the dough has reached the edges of the loaf pan, brush the surface with some egg wash and a cook the loaf in the oven at 180° for 30 minutes. Take the loaf out of the oven and let it cool down completely.
Once the dough is cool, cut it into slices of approximately 1cm. A black and white spiral should appear on each slice
It is now time to toast ("biscottare") the slices. Put all the slices on a baking tray and cook them in the oven at 150° for approximately 30 minutes (until they are crispy and golden brown). Be sure to turn the slices every 10 minutes. Once the slices are toasted, let them cool down.
Your fette biscottate are ready! You can keep them in a airtight container for several weeks.

Notes

With this recipe you will obtain two-tone fette biscottate. Of course if you prefer your fette plain, you can simply skip the cocoa (step 6). Or, if you want full cocoa fette instead, just add the cocoa with the flour to the whole dough. The procedure remains the same in both cases.

These fette biscottate are lightly sweet, as they are meant to be eaten with jam or nutella. If you like a sweeter taste (particularly if you eat them plain) you can add more sugar (20-30 grams).

You can use whatever flour you prefer (wholemeal, multigrain etc..). You may need to adjust the liquid in the recipe accordingly (for instance, wholemeal flour absorbes more liquid, so you may need to add some more milk or water to your dough).

Dry yeast can be replaced with 20 grams of fresh yeast or with 150 grams of sourdough.

The recipe can be made vegan very easily. You can replace the milk with any nut milk and the butter with 40 grams of any seed oil. To brush the surface of the dough before cooking it, you can use just a bit of nut milk.