Canistrelli

Canistrelli descend from the Mediterranean tradition of twice-baked or long-keeping biscuits that sailors and shepherds could carry, and they share roots with the Italian canestrelli and the wider family of wine biscuits of the Liguria–Corsica region — another mark of the island's Genoese past. Crucially they are made with oil and wine rather than butter, which is why they were historically a poor man's keeping-biscuit in a place with little dairy butter; the same recipe survives today as a market staple rather than a luxury.

Hard and crumbly rather than soft, canistrelli shatter into dry, sandy fragments when bitten — closer to a shortbread-shortcake than a cookie. The anise gives a cool, liquorice-like lift; the wine in the dough leaves a faint tang and toasted note behind the sweetness. They are deliberately dry, which is why dunking is half the point: the biscuit drinks up coffee or sweet wine and softens just enough.

The dry, snappable texture comes from the fat-and-wine formula: oil coats the flour and limits gluten development, keeping the crumb short, while the white wine — rather than milk or much water — adds liquid that bakes off, leaving the biscuit dense and low in moisture so it keeps for weeks. A little baking ammonia or baking powder gives a slight rise and the characteristic crispness. The pale-gold bake is deliberate: stopped before deep browning, the biscuit stays hard and dry rather than chewy.