Growing up in a Sicilian family in NJ, a stone's throw from NYC, my
grandmother and aunts use to make a cookie they all called biscottina,
or biscottini. Now these weren't traditional biscotti. They were a
concoction of flour, sugar, egg and vanilla ( all the major food groups
). They cooked up into a 2 x 4 inch oval. Pale gold, like the
color of French vanilla ice cream with a lightly browned bottom. Fresh
out of the oven they were heavenly, soft, slightly chewy. A day later
they hardened a bit and were perfect for dunking in coffee. Two days
later they were rock hard and even better!

When they turned hard, Grandma ( or Zia Rosalia, or Aunt Maria, or Aunt
Angie, or Zia Carmella etc., etc., and the list goes on, and on...)
used to make up a batch of sugar syrup, and almond extract and soak the
cookes until they were soft like very moist cakes (think Baba a Rhum) .
Then she'd sprinkled the tops with a mixture of chopped toasted
almonds and sugar. One of those beauties and a glass of Vin Santo was
all you needed.

Does anyone know what I'm referring to? I'd love to get the recipe,
but all the old Italians are gone, and I don't recall if anyone ever
wrote the recipe down. I just remember that you had to beat the
daylight out of the batter in a stand mixer for something like an
hour!!! Any help would be greatly appreciated...and would probably get
you a batch of these delicious cookies to boot.

Cheers.