cooling after the second bake
I’ve been craving cookies, but I don’t actually like them so much (too sweet); I just want something to go with coffee, and biscotti are generally not super rich, due to having no shortening usually. Melody recommended this recipe from joy of baking. I like my biscotti as plain as possible, so almond it was, but the link will also tell you how to make a chocolate glaze/frosting, and almond biscotti often have some anise in, too. For the nut-intolerant, cranberries or chocolate chips would probably substitute pretty well for the almonds (and though the original calls for almond extract, I didn’t have any so I just used extra vanilla and it worked fine. I thought about adding some Scotch because I was worried about blandness ["Vanilla extract is alcohol! Bailey's Irish Cream is made of whiskey and sweet and comes in an almond version!"] Then I didn’t. This was probably for the best.)
You need:
- 1 cup blanched, toasted, and coarsely chopped whole almonds
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/8-1/4 tsp salt (the original called for 1/8 and I don’t think it was quite enough.)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- zest of most of a lemon, I guess, but not really grating the pith, just the pretty yellow bit, also a lot of it sticks to the grater anyway so it’s not as much as it sounds
Blanching the almonds: I guess you could buy pre-toasted, pre-chopped almonds, if you’re lame. So preheat the oven to 350F. Take your whole raw almonds and blanch them by boiling some water, adding the almonds and taking it off the heat, letting sit for 1 min (not more! gets mushy and bad!), then straining them out and running under cold water. Now the skins will come off really easily so do that and put your blanched, skinless almonds on a baking sheet. Toast them for ~10min (took me 12 min) till they’re turning a little bit golden and start to smell good. Maybe shake them around a little partway through. Now, have at them with knife. They don’t need to be evenly chopped at all – in fact a mixture of little nearly-powdered bits and halves or quarters makes for a nice texture.
You can turn the oven down to 300F now.
In a smallish bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla extract – or 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond extract, if you have it, or whatever other fanciness you feel like. In another and larger bowl, mix your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. Pour the egg mixture in a bit at a time and mix it into a dough slowly. The original tells you to use an electric mixer; this was the opposite of helpful. I used spoon and hands after electric mixer disaster. When the wet ingredients are about half in, add the almonds.
You should have a thick, sugary dough. Divide into two equal lumps. Flour some countertop; roll each lump into a log about 10 in. long and 2 in. wide. Put them on a lightly greased baking sheet (flouring it might also have helped, in retrospect) with a bit of space between them. Depending on how flat you want your biscotti, you could squish them down a little. Bake for ~40 min or till no longer squishy to the touch.
Biscotti get their name because they’re baked twice (oh, Italy, you are so clever) so now you have to slice them and bake them again. But first, let them cool for at least 10 min! Then use a large serrated knife and caution. Mine crumbled a lot. Cut at an angle to make the right shape. I couldn’t get 1/2 inch slices to not break, but remember they will be hard and you will have to bite them so perhaps don’t go much thicker. Arrange them lying down on your baking sheet and stick them back in the oven, flipping halfway through, for about 15 min per side, or (again) until not squishy.
Let them cool and make coffee! I will be having mine with moka coffee for breakfast tomorrow.