Italian Wine Biscuits Recipe on Food52 (2024)

mario February 7, 2024

I bake often. I have tried this recipe twice and both times I had to throw out these biscuits. The oven temp at 375* is too hot and the baking time of 40 minutes leaves one with burnt biscuits. The first time I thought I did something wrong so I followed the recipe precisely and again ended up with burnt biscuits. The temp is too high and the baking time is much too long. I was furious and again threw out the biscuits. What a waste of time and ingredients....

These are really delicious. Very flavorful and perfect with wine or coffee. I used a 2 Tablespoon measure and measured exactly, but only ended up with 26 biscuits instead of 30. I was a bit concerned about how oily the dough was, and that the oil separated as the dough sat while I was measuring out and shaping the biscuits. However, I just gently re-mixed the oil in as I went along. The oiliness goes completely away as the biscuits bake.

Rose December 3, 2020

I love these cookies and make them according to the recipe. I'd like to make them gluten free. Any suggestions? Can I just substitute the flour with a GF baking mix? Anything specific I should know?

I make these but not with olive oil or fennel...I make the fennel ones too but not with wine(same recipe with water and 3 to 4 tablespoons fennel). Guess it depends on where you grew up but here in RI we make red wine , white, and fennel biscuits just not mixed. It is same recipe with 1 cup wine, 1 sugar, 1 cup corn or vegetable oil , 4 c flour and 2 teaspoons baking powder. I guess you could use an olive oil but a plain tasting one and not EVVO as it just would not taste right. I like the red wine one's best and I use a decent Port wine in mine or Carlo Rossi Burgundy which is what my Nana used.

sorry about the spelling below hard to type on my phone

Sorry you are wrong here is the "State of Rhode Island" we are the smallest state in the USA but have many bakeshops and they wine biscuits are found every where. Also you do not use olive oil the Will said below. IN our house egg and wine biscuits are like bread. I was just look for something different to try.

PS...never ever use Extra Virgin olive oil, it will taste very nasty, you can use a very light tasting olive oil but in fact it comes out much better if using a non-flavor light tasting or no taste oil, we use Smart Balance at home and in the bakery they use Mazola Canola oil. Most Italians use plain old vegetable oil or shortening. Even with a more savory type of Pepper biscuits we don't use olive oil as the result is better with regular old cooking oil. Also cheaper but the main reason is taste. You can even use butter for a different taste altogether. Some folks put almonds in them or on top, I like the plain simple one the best.

We make these in my family bakery. We do not put fennel into the biscuits as they take away from the wine taste, we make a separate fennel anisette biscuits. For a more special biscuit, substitute a good Port wine! We also make white wine biscuits. Red is my favorite.

These are my favorite! I don't have much of a sweet tooth (unless it's chocolate), so wine biscuits are perfect for me. It's hard to explain how good these are to people unfamiliar with Italian snacks. I stock up at our favorite family bakery whenever I visit home and then wonder why I never bake them myself, but with your recipe right in front of me now I have no excuse!

I like the idea of wine in bakes. I've made red-wine pastry for Empanadas and the resulting purple hue is lovely! I like! Very much!

Hi Linzarella. They're mildly sweet. Not as sweet as a cookie, but definitely sweeter than a cracker. They actually pair well with wine and cheese as much as they do with coffee. And, yes, they're fun!

This sounds like the dessert of my dreams. How sweet do they come out? I'm envisioning something that you could almost eat like a cracker, only a little more fun.