These cantuccini are my proposal this year to give to school teachers, co-workers or to leave on Christmas Eve to our guests so that they remember us on the morning of Christmas Day. But they are also perfect for a New Year's breakfast or to leave to their majesties the Three Wise Men on the night of January 5.

You already know that I love giving homemade gifts at Christmas. Time is the most precious thing we have nowadays and combining time with cooking seems like the perfect gift idea to me.

They are very easy to prepare cookies and have such a rich flavor that they are addictive. You can replace nuts and chocolate. Eliminate or replace them with what you like the most and thus make this recipe of yours.

Ingredients

• 550 g flour
• 1 teaspoon and a half of baking powder
• 185 g sugar
• 150 g of soft butter in pieces (see note)
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon and a half of pure vanilla extract
• 200 g pistachios and almonds
• 160 g dark chocolate chips (see note)
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of cardamom

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 ° C.

We grease a baking tray (I use grease spray)

We sift half the flour and yeast.

In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and cardamom with a whisk until they are foamy, have doubled in volume and are pale in color. We add half the flour with the butter and continue beating until we have a uniform but sticky dough.

Now add half of the flour to the work surface and pour out the dough. Little by little we wrap the dough with the flour until it has all been absorbed and the dough does not stick.

We put a little more flour on the work surface and lightly spread the dough with our hands, forming a rectangle. We put the pistachios, almonds and chocolate in the center and wrap the ingredients with the dough, folding the ends of the dough inwards. At first it will seem that we have added too many nuts and chocolate but when we finish kneading they will be completely integrated.

Divide the dough into two pieces and with each one we form a cylinder and crush slightly with your hand to flatten them a little. Place them on the greased tray we had prepared and bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes until the edges are slightly golden.

Remove the biscuits from the oven and lower the temperature to 175 degrees.

We place the cakes on a wooden board and with a sharp serrated knife, cut diagonal slices approximately one cm thick. We put them on a baking tray and bake for about 20-25 more minutes until they are completely crispy. After 5 minutes we remove them from the tray and place them on a rack until they are completely cool.

To cover the bottom part with chocolate, we melt the chocolate and coat the bottom part of each cookie, letting them cool completely on baking paper.

Tips and Tricks

• Butter should be neither too cold nor too soft. I take it out of the fridge when I prepare the ingredients and unless it is summer it is at the ideal temperature at the time of adding it.
• You can replace the chocolate with dried cranberries, dried cherries, raisins, plums, dried apricots.
• You can use white chocolate instead of dark chocolate if you prefer
• If we store them in an airtight container or can, they will last well for a couple of weeks.
• They freeze very well
• Preparation time: 50 minutes
• Difficulty: easy
• Servings: About 30 cookies

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