Rachel Roddy's Recipe for Italian Breakfast Cookies | A kitchen in Rome

The Passi bakery in Rome is long and quite narrow with terrazzo tiles and an L-shaped glazed counter. Even on the coldest days it is hot and when it rains they spread sawdust on the floor to avoid slipping. Bread is stacked on shelves and in crate-like sections that line the walls. The counter houses everything else from the back ovens: a few typically Roman hot dishes, lengths of pizza and focacce, pies, cakes, brioches and biscotti. Hundreds of biscotti.

The word biscotto, like biscuit, is a generic word with a Latin root, < em >panis biscoctus, which refers to bread (panis) cooked (coctus) twice (bis ) in order to make it durable. It is a durable "rusk" that needs to be soaked in liquid to make it edible. Over the centuries, this rusk has evolved and mellowed into hundreds of different shapes, some of them twice baked, some not, many with new names, others simply biscotti al latte (milk biscuits), biscotti savoiardi (biscuit fingers), biscotti regina (small logs covered with sesame seeds). Then there are the biscotti di Prato, from Prato in Tuscany, which are traditionally dipped in sweet wine and are also known as cantucci< /em>. , although they have traveled the world like simple biscotti.

Back at Panificio Passi, a rectangle of pizza with cheese and mushrooms smoke the glass right in front of me. A few meters away, a little girl breathes on her side of the counter, then slides her index finger in the condensation. The counter is long and the metal cookie trays are well spaced out. There are round wine biscuits, waffle pizzelle, pale fluffy almond balls, full braids, cat's tongues, hazelnut tozzetti and with honey, chocolate chip biscotti, raisins or a fingerprint of apricot jam and floury cookies half dipped in chocolate called fiammette (little flames).

The biggest exhibits are biscotti al latte, milk cookies, which look and taste like a rusk crossed with plain cake and a finger of bread. 'sponge. In Sicily, the biscotti all'uovo, or egg biscuits, are similar: Vincenzo remembers the egg man's cry when he came to the end of the street, and the way his grandmother would sometimes buy a bag of six biscotti all'uovo as well as the eggs themselves. Their Italian nature and habits make them also known as biscotti da inzuppare, dipping biscuits or breakfast biscuits.

A few years ago I bought a bag of honey tozzetti ; they were as hard as a mountainside and impossible to eat without dipping in milk or, even better, wine. It is rare, however. Most of the time, soaking or soaking is a choice rather than a necessity. And that's definitely the case with these milk-egg-dip-breakfast cookies inspired by those at Passi's L-shaped counter. Which, of course, can be eaten whenever you want (I like mine at 11am or 4pm with a cup of tea).

Breakfast biscuits

Prepare 20 mins. Bake 20 minMakes 12 large or 30 small biscuits

2 large eggs 50 ml whole milk 50 ml olive or vegetable oil Zest of 1 large untreated orange 100 g golden caster sugar plus extra for dusting 300g flour 1tsp baking powder 1tsp baking soda Pinch of saltIcing sugar

In a large bowl, beat lightly the eggs, then add the milk, oil, grated orange zest and sugar, and mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt, and mix first with a fork and then with your hands, until a homogeneous dough is obtained. (If it sticks to your hands, add a little more flour.)

Heat oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/Gas 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and put a little sugar on a plate.

Remove pieces of dough - about 70g for large cookies, 40g for smaller ones - then roll each piece into a ball. Roll each ball into a log, then roll it in the sugar and arrange them well spaced out on the lined baking sheet. Flatten slightly to resemble mini surfboards, then dust with icing sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until cookies are set puffy and slightly golden. Raise on a wire rack to cool, then serve (or store in an airtight container for later).