Almond Biscotti

An Italian Almond Biscuits that are from Tuscan city of Prato. They are twice baked, crunchy and slightly hard textured biscuits traditionally served along with a coffee or tea to dip it in.

My first love of biscotti is from years before when I tried one at a bakery. It was instant love and best friends forever. I enjoyed quite a variety of biscuits over the years. But the simplest and most basic version of Biscotti with nothing much almonds and almond extract is the one I always go back to.

Over the years, my kids started enjoying these snacks and requests for more chocolate drizzles on the top to make them more fun and chocolatey per their taste. Ofcourse I reserve a few without any chocolate to enjoy them with my cup of tea.

There are many variations you can make and bake in Biscotti.

Almonds
Pistachios
Cranberry Orange
Lemon
Chocolate
Dark Chocolate
Rasberry & white chocolate

And on and on.

I would say you can make as many variations as the cake varieties and more. My fav will be the cranberry-orange and Rasberry-white chocolate ones after the basic traditional almond biscotti.

I even made the pistachio ones with good success, but that would be another post for another day.

Ingredients:

The recipe requires basic- from the pantry ingredients – flour, eggs, butter, baking powder, sugar, salt & almonds. Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary except one.

The only extra item you may or may not have is Almond extract. Not the imitation kind. The taste will definitely tell you if you used the imitation almond extract. Go for the real one and your taste buds will definitely thank you.

Method:

Once all the ingredients are mixed, chil the dough for 30-60 mins. This will make the dough to hold the shape while baking.

After chilling, divide the dough into 4 parts. You can even divide them in 2 and get humongous logs. But they are way too big for my taste and hands.

Roll the parts into logs and press them flat using your hands. The dough is not sticky, you can shape them anyway you like.

Once the first bake of 20 mins is done, take them out of the oven-cut them diagonal and then bake them second time for another 10 mins. This is what makes them twice baked and get you that crispy hard crunchy biscottis.

Once the second bake is done, let them cool completely before drizzling chocolate or even dipping them in chocolate.

Let’s get into it.

Biscotti

Servings: 30-35
Time: 1.5 hrs
Difficulty: Easy
Print

Twice baked, crunchy and slightly hard textured biscuits traditionally served along with a coffee or tea to dip it in.

Ingredients

2 ¾ cups All purpose flour
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup or 1 stick unsalted butter – melted
3 large eggs
1 cup almonds, chopped
2 tsp almond extract

Directions

In a bowl of standard mixer, add the melted butter,almond extract and sugar. Mix them well until the sugar is dissolved.
Add flour, baking powder, salt & sugar and mix it well. Add chopped nuts and mix it again.
The mixture will be crumbly. But when you mix it all with hands, it forms a ball. Cover and chill it in the fridge for 30 mins.
Preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat sheets.
Take the dough and divide it in 4 pieces. Roll them in logs using your hands and spread them as shown in picture below.

Bake for 20 mins or until the edges are golden. Take them out of the oven. Using a spatula, carefully lift the log and transfer them to chopping board. Cut the logs diagonally as shown in the pic below.

Place the cut cookies back on baking sheet on their sides and bake them for 5 minutes. Take them out of the oven, flip them over and bake them for 5 more minutes.