Bisse Italian Cookies

4.95 from 18 votes

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 19 minutes

Total Time 29 minutes

Servings Cookies

Calories 181

These are the perfect Bisse cookie - crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside

Beat the eggs and sugar together until creamy
Next, add in the olive oil and the zest of one lemon.
The zest is the yellow. You want to avoid getting any of the pith, the white, in there. It’s bitter. We only want that delicious, fragrant yellow zest.
The easiest way to do this is with a mandoline.
Next, add a pinch of salt
Finally, add the 3 1/3 cups of flour in two parts.
This makes it easier to fold in the flour and ensures that we don’t have any lumps. Check down at the bottom to make sure all the flour has been incorporated.
Once mixed, you can put the dough in the fridge for about 1/2 hour to get a more workable consistency, but if you don’t have time, it's not necessary.

Now, flour your cooking paper and your fingers with a little bit of flour. And take a large spoonful of the cookie dough and roll it out like a stick, around 8 or 9 inches long (20-23 cm). I like to use the length of my hand as a guide to make uniform sized cookies, with the stick of dough extending a bit past my wrist and the tip of my middle finger.
You want to work the dough the least possible, because an overworked cookie dough leads to a tough cookie.
Now, I’ll tell you a trick to get a perfect "S" shape.
What you want to do is pick up the stick from each end and as you transfer the dough on to your baking sheet, and just before you put it down on the baking sheet, form the "S". Once down, you can adjust the shape a bit if necessary.
Try to get 2 rows of four cookies on the baking sheet.
In between batches, stick the dough in the fridge to keep it at a good consistency to work with.
Bake the cookies for 5 minutes at 425F. (202C)
Then lower the heat to 350F for around 14 minutes. (175C)
Cookies continue to bake if left on a hot baking sheet, so as soon as they come out of the oven, you want to carefully slide the baking paper onto a cooling rack.
Place a new sheet of baking paper on the baking sheet and continue shaping and baking the cookies.

Calories: 181kcal

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: biscotti, bisse, Italian desserts, Jewish Ghetto, kosher, Venice Italy