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1
Combine the flour and sugar in a bowl. Add the eggs and work to a stiff, cohesive dough — it should not be sticky and must hold its shape when pressed. Add the whole almonds and distribute them evenly through the mass without breaking them. The dough is ready when it pulls cleanly from the sides of the bowl.
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2
Divide the dough and shape on a lightly floured surface into flat logs approximately 4 cm wide and 2 cm high. Place on a lined baking sheet and bake in an oven set to 180 °C until the logs are firm to the tap, pale gold on the surface, and set through — they must not yield to gentle pressure.
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3
Remove the logs and allow them to rest for 10 minutes — this brief rest makes the cut cleaner. Slice on the diagonal into oblongs approximately 1.5 cm thick. This is where the dish lives or dies: return every slice, cut-side up, to the oven and bake again at 160 °C until the cantucci are completely dry, hard, and uniformly golden — no give, no moisture, no pale interior when broken. An under-baked second bake produces a texture too soft to require dipping, which destroys the logic of the dish entirely.
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4
Transfer to a wire rack. The cantucci are finished when they cool to room temperature and ring with a faint knock against the rack — hard and resonant, not muffled. Store in a tin.