Biscotti

The perfect homemade treat to accompany a cup of coffee

90 Minutes

Serves: 36-42 Biscuits

Medium

This recipe for American style Biscotti creates biscuits that are quite a bit softer than traditional biscotti, but are just as good dunked in a dark, roast coffee.

Coming across this recipe for biscotti in Grandma’s recipe box was a bit of a surprise to me. I don’t really remember her making biscotti and its definitely not a traditional recipe for her very German family! I was even more surprised when the recipe turned out great! The recipe should more accurately be called American Style Biscotti as it is much closer to that then its harder and dryer Italian cousin. It’s definitely not the easiest recipe that Grandma had but the work put into it is certainly worth it. The recipe is a great base for cookies you can decorate and gift to friends and it makes a large batch!

Making the dough for this recipe is really the easy part. It’s a basic dough and comes together pretty quickly. The biggest thing is to make sure that your butter is properly softened and room temperature. Once you have the dough ready, things get a little trickier, but nothing you can’t handle.

After making the dough, you divide it in two and shape it into two long, thing logs. Easy enough. Bake that and then, the hardest part for me was transferring the baked logs onto a cooling rack as they are still a bit soft. I used two spatulas coming from either side to hoist them up and quickly move them to the racks. A baguette transfer peel might help if you have one. After the first round of baking and cooling, you cut the biscotti at a diagonal, lay them on their side and bake again. Tedious but double – and worth the effort!

Of course, some of the fun of biscotti is decorating them. There’s really nothing you can’t do with them once they are done. Some of the traditional decorations are dipping them in chocolate and rolling them in nuts or candy. You can also swap out the chopped almonds for almost any other kind of nut. I think toasted hazelnuts would be wonderful!

This is one of the recipes that once you’ve tried it a time or two, you can really use it as a great base to play with and make your own. And the great things about making biscotti is that it makes enough to share and they keep for a long time. I hope you give this recipe a try. If you do, let me know what you think in the comments and share a picture with me on Instagram (@bdhbakes).

Steps:

Preheat Oven to 300º
Chop Almonds
Roughly chop the slivered almonds until you have about a cup. Set aside.
Mix Dry Ingredients
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt until evenly distributed. Set aside.
Cream Butter and Sugar
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter and the sugar. Using a hand mixer or the paddle attachment on your stand mixer, start mixing on slow until most of the sugar is blended into the butter. Then, gradually increase the speed until you get to medium and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy and there are no longer any sugar granules. About 4-5 minutes.
Add Eggs
Next, we'll add eggs one at a time. To do this easily, I get a glass measuring cup (2 Cup size) and crack all three eggs into that. Make sure there are no shells. Then, pour the eggs into the batter. Allow the first yolk to fall, then mix until incorporated - about 30 seconds. Then, add the second yolk and mix for 30 seconds or so. Follow it up with the third and mix for another 30 seconds.
Add Extracts
Add the extracts and mix again for about 30 seconds.
Add Dry Ingredients
Next, add the dry ingredients a half cup (or so) at a time. Get a half cup measuring cup (or something similar) and add a heaping scoopful of the dry ingredients mixing on low after each addition until you no longer see any dry bits. Continue this pattern until all of the dry ingredients are added.
Stir in Almonds
Add the almonds to the dough and stir to combine. If using a stand mixer, just continue with the paddle attachment on low. If using a hand mixer, it'll be easier to switch to stirring with a wooden spoon for this step. (Ignore the rubber spatula in the first picture - that did NOT work!)
Shape Logs on Baking Sheet and Bake
Now prep a large baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or tin foil. If using tin foil, you'll want to butter it or spray it with a good amount of baking spray. Then divide the dough into two (roughly) even amounts. It'll be a bit sticky at first but should come together pretty easily. Shape each portion of dough into two long, thin rows. You want them to be about 13" long and 2-3" wide. Bake for about 35-40 minutes
Cool
Allow the logs to cool on the pan for about 5 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack. This is one of the trickiest steps. Just go slow and try not to allow either log to crack. I found it easiest to use two wide spatulas coming from opposite sides to be the best way to support the full length of each log as I moved it. Allow to cool on the racks for an additional 15 minutes or so.
Reduce Oven Temp to 300º
Slice Logs
Carefully transfer one log to a cutting board and slice diagonally in 3/4" slices. Move the slices back to the cookie sheet and lay them out, cut side up. Continue doing the same with the second log.
Bake Round Two
With the oven temperature now at 300º, bake the sliced biscotti for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take them out of the oven, flip each cookie and bake for another 10 minutes.
Cool and Enjoy
Once the cookies are done baking, transfer them back to the wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Eat, decorate or keep in an airtight container.