Baicoli

Name: Baicoli
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Veneta
Ingredients: 300 g strong white bread flour; 5 g fast-action dried yeast; 120 ml Whole milk; 60 g caster sugar; 50 g Unsalted butter; 1 medium egg white; 2 g Fine sea salt

Crisp, paper-thin Venetian twice-baked biscuits, historically named after tiny sea bass and traditionally dipped in espresso or whipped zabaione.

🇮🇹Italy· Veneto

Prep: 45 min
Cook: 30 min
Total: 75 min
Servings: 8
Difficulty: Medium
Calories: 185 kcal

Ingredients

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Servings

300 g strong white bread flour — divided into two equal batches
5 g fast-action dried yeast — active dried yeast
120 ml Whole milk — lukewarm
60 g caster sugar — fine white sugar
50 g Unsalted butter — softened at room temperature
1 medium egg white — at room temperature
2 g Fine sea salt — plain sea salt

Equipment

•Baking sheet
•Baking parchment
•Electric mixer or whisk
•Sharp serrated knife
•Wire cooling rack

Nutrition

Per serving, approximate

Calories: 185 kcal
fat: 5 g
carbs: 31 g
fibre: 1 g
protein: 4 g
calories: 185 kcal

Instructions

1
Dissolve the yeast and one teaspoon of the sugar in the lukewarm milk, leaving for ten minutes until frothy.
2
Stir 150 grams of flour into the milk mixture until smooth, then cover and prove for forty minutes.
3
Whisk the egg white in a clean bowl until stiff, glossy peaks form.
4
Add remaining flour, remaining sugar, salt, softened butter, and the whisked egg white to the risen dough.
5
Knead the mixture on a lightly floured surface for ten minutes until completely smooth, supple, and elastic.
6
Divide dough into four equal portions and roll each into a neat cylinder roughly three centimetres in diameter.
7
Place the cylinders on a parchment-lined baking tray, cover with a tea towel, and prove for one hour.
8
Bake at 180 degrees C for twelve to fifteen minutes until very lightly golden and set, then cool completely.
9
Wrap the cooled loaves loosely in a clean cloth and rest at room temperature for two days to firm up.
10
Slice the rested loaves diagonally with a sharp serrated knife into wafers two millimetres thick.
11
Lay the wafer slices flat on baking trays and toast at 150 degrees C for twelve minutes until crisp.

Chef's tips

Do not skip the two-day resting period before the second bake; fresh loaves are far too soft to slice thinly without crumbling. Use a gentle sawing motion with a very sharp serrated bread knife to achieve translucent, paper-thin wafers. The colour should remain pale golden rather than deeply browned.

Ingredient substitutions

fast-action dried yeast → 12g fresh cake yeast dissolved directly in lukewarm milk
whole milk → unsweetened almond milk for a lighter crumb

Storage

Store the completely cooled baicoli in an airtight biscuit tin at room temperature for up to two months.

Reheating

Reheating is not necessary, but softened biscuits can be crisped in a 140 degrees C oven for five minutes.

Common mistakes to avoid

•Slicing the loaves immediately after the first bake, which crushes the crumb instead of creating clean slices
•Cutting slices too thick, resulting in a hard rusk rather than a delicate, crisp wafer
•Over-browning during the second bake, which destroys the subtle, sweet milky flavour

Serving suggestions

Serve alongside a small cup of dark Venetian espresso for dippingDip into a stemmed glass of warm, freshly whipped egg-and-Marsala zabaionePair with a glass of sweet Vin Santo or Torcolato dessert wine