Italian Bussola Biscuits (from Tessa Kiros's Venezia)

I have only eaten this biscuit once before. On the colourful island of Burano, just off Venice. I remember it clearly like it was yesterday. We had just finished a delicious Italian summer lunch when out came these S shaped biscuits. No meal is complete without a shot of espresso in Italy and the heavenly combination of the sweetness of these biscuits dunked into the bitterness of the espresso was unforgettable.

So unforgettable that when I saw this recipe in Tessa Kiros's Venezia cookbook, I just knew I had to give it a go!

VERDICT: 9.5/10 If you enjoy shortbread-like bikkies, then you really have to try making these. Not only were they easy to conjure up but really yummy too. The best bit is how you can control the amount of sugar that goes into the recipe. Highly recommended!

Italian Bussola Biscuits

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Ingredients:

125g cold, unsalted butter, chopped

250g cake (OO) flour

110g sugar

2 egg yolks

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1.5 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2 tbs milk

Method:

1) Mix butter with flour and sugar until it looks like damp sand

2) Combine egg yolks, vanilla extract, lemon zest and milk in a bowl.

3) Pour into the bowl and mix it together until it comes together (alternatively, pulse in a food processor)

4) Turn out onto a board and bring it together to make a fat 20cm long log.

5) Wrap in plastic wrap and put into fridge for an hour or more

6) Preheat oven to 170C and line 2 baking trays with baking paper

7) Lightly flour surface and hands and keep half the dough in fridge whilst you work with the other half

8) Cut slices about 5mm and roll out into 8cm thick to form S shape. Alternatively, you can roll them and join the ends instead to make circles.

9) Bake for 10-15 minutes until pale and golden here and there. They shouldn't bake till too hard as they harden once out of the oven

10) Best served with an espresso!!

Let's just say I have been eyeing this food processor for a LONG time. It was the typical case of "Do I need it? Or do I NEED it?". But then someone special decided to surprise me with it. And he chose it in my favourite colour too - white!

Tessa's recipe called for OO flour for which I obediently trotted to Essential Ingredient for.

Her recipe stated that it would make 50 biscuits. For some reason, I only got about 20!! I think I made my S's too big!

It was only whilst I was photographing them, that I suddenly realised I have an acute case of dyslexia! My S's were inverted! I had made 2 biscuits instead!!!

(I ate the one in the middle thus the gap!)

The only downside to baking and hauling your mighty food processor out, is the awful washing up afters. The Magimix is dish washer proof so that helps.