Quaresimale

It took me months to track down this recipe for the cinnamon-nut biscotti that are traditional for Lent, and longer still to pry it from Veniero’s, a pastry shop/café in New York City. Finally, baker Joe Fighera showed me how to make these cookies that are “crisp like glass.”

The only trick was that the recipe required hard-to-get ingredients: pure cinnamon oil and ammonium carbonate, an old-time leavener that makes cookies incredibly crisp. It’s the cinnamon oil that gives these bi