Brutti ma Buoni
Rough Italian hazelnut meringue biscuits, chewy inside and crisp outside, baked for 30 minutes at 150C.
Photograph credit: Ugly but delicious by Tulumnes · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Brutti ma buoni means ugly but good, and the name tells you what to expect: lumpy, uneven biscuits that taste far better than they look. They are made from only four ingredients, egg whites, sugar, hazelnuts and vanilla, and contain no flour or butter.
Toast the hazelnuts first until their skins loosen, rub off what skin you can and chop them roughly, not fine. A mix of coarse and fine pieces gives the chew. Whisk the egg whites with the sugar until thick and glossy but not stiff. Fold the nuts in gently, then spoon heaps onto lined trays with a gap between them.
Bake at 150°C / 300°F for 30 minutes, until the outsides are dry and the biscuits lift off the paper easily. They will still be soft inside, and they firm as they cool. Leave them on the tray for 10 minutes before moving. Stored airtight, they stay chewy for a week.
How to Make Brutti ma Buoni
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Heat the oven to 150°C / 300°F and line two trays. Toast the hazelnuts on a tray for 8 minutes, rub off the skins and chop roughly.
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Whisk the egg whites and salt to soft peaks, then whisk in the sugar a spoonful at a time until thick and glossy. Add the vanilla.
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Fold in the nuts and spoon 20 heaps onto the trays, well apart.
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Bake for 30 minutes until dry outside and lifting off the paper easily.
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Cool on the trays for 10 minutes.
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A Few Pointers
- Chop the nuts coarsely for a better chew.
- Do not whisk the whites to stiff peaks.
- Leave the biscuits to firm up on the tray.
Serve It With
Espresso · Dessert wine · Vanilla ice cream
Storage
Keeps for 1 week airtight.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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