Deliciously Directionless: Classic Almond Biscotti

Last week I ran a little event on my Facebook page called #YourChoiceMonday – on the 1^st Monday of every month you can choose a dish that you would like to see on this blog. I’ll cook it & post a recipe. One of my followers requested for Almond Biscotti, so I baked them over the weekend and here’s the recipe! You too can be a part of this interactive event. Just head over to my Facebook page, ‘like’ it and you will be updated of forthcoming events.

Biscotti are these really crunchy Italian biscuits. In fact, biscotto (biscotti is plural) means ‘twice-baked’ and the recipe involves 2 stages of baking. Biscotti are very dry and hard. Hence they are served with a drink – dessert wines (in Italy) or coffee – into which they can be dunked.

This was the first time I was making these biscotti so I turned to Google to research some recipes. I found so many that it was really difficult to decide what to do. So I went to the trusted Joy of Baking web site where they have a classic recipe for this Italian biscuit. There’s a video available as well and I strongly recommend that you watch it since it’s a step by step demonstration of the recipe. I have adapted my recipe from this web site.

This recipe bakes 12-14 biscotti.

You’ll need:

100g whole Almonds
150g All-purpose Flour
75g white granulated Sugar
2 medium Eggs
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Vanilla Essence
¼tsp Almond Essence
A pinch of Salt

How to:

Preheat the oven to 180C. You can either use the almonds with the skin on, or blanch them and remove the skins. I left them on. Roast the almonds in the oven for about 10 minutes or till they are lightly brown and give out their lovely aroma.

Remove and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, chop them up roughly and set aside.

In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla essence and almond essence. Only a few drops of almond essence will suffice; it’s added to enhance the almond flavour and aroma of the biscotti.
Add the egg mixture to the dry mixture and mix well to form a dough.
Line or grease a baking tray and transfer the dough to it. Shape it into a flat log (you can roll it out if necessary). It should be about 3-4 inches wide and about an inch thick.

Bake it at 150C for 35 minutes, or till it is firm to touch.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Transfer to a cutting board and cut out slices about ½ an inch thick.
Return them to oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. Turn them over and bake on the other side for another 10-15 minutes. The longer you bake at this stage, the crunchier and harder the biscotti will be. So if you don’t want them too hard, just bake for 10 minutes on each side.

Remove from the oven and cool. Store them in an air-tight container. These biscotti have a long shelf life.