Prep Time 20 min cook time 50 min
In Italy, one of my favorite pastimes is sitting at a sidewalk cafe casually dunking biscotti in a mid-morning coffee or an after-dinner vin santo and watch the world go by.
The whole point of biscotti is to have delicious cookies that you can dunk without them going soggy. You can enjoy them with your coffee, your afternoon tea or your cold glass of milk before going to bed. They also make a much appreciated house gift.
The word biscotti in Italian means twice baked. These cookies are baked, sliced and then baked a second time in order to give them their typical crunchiness.
They are very easy to make and can be flavored with different nuts and add-in combinations. My preference is for lightly baked slivered almonds and golden raisins flavored with orange zest and almond extract.
Baking techniques also vary. Some recipes call for a short second bake at high temperature but that often gives them a texture that is too hard for my liking. Once cooked and sliced, I prefer to leave them in the oven with the heat turned off for about 20 minutes. That second slow bake gives them the right amount of crunch.
Also, instead of letting the baked cookies cool down and harden before slicing, I slice the cooked dough while it is still hot and soft which makes for a much easier slicing process.
Finally, the size of cookie is a personal choice. I prefer smaller half inch wide biscotti about 3” long and 3/4” thick.
Almond And Raisin Biscotti
by
Derek Farwagi
Equipment
- 2 large mixing bowls
- 1 large baking tray
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp almond extract
- zest of one navel orange
- 1 cup golden raisins
- 1 cup slivered almonds
- 3 cups all purpose four
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp fine salt
Instructions
A few hours before you bake, set aside a stick of unsalted butter and allow to get to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Bake a cup of slivered almonds in a baking tray until toasted - about 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside in a small bowl.
- With a fork, cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light in color; beat eggs and add one at a time to butter mixture.
- Mix in the zest of one navel orange and 1 tsp of almond extract.
- Mix in a cup of golden raisins .
- Mix in toasted slivered almonds.
- In a separate large bowl mix baking powder and salt with three cups of all purpose flower.
- With a large wooden spatula or spoon, add flour mixture, a cup at a time to the egg mixture and blend well.
- When the dough is too difficult to mix with the spatula or spoon, transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead by hand, adding the remaining flour to the mix as you go along.
- When all the flower has been added, knead the dough into a log shape and divide into three equal parts.
- Roll each part into a 1 1/2 inch diameter roll and about a 14” long then press that down until you have three loaves about 3" wide and 3/4" thick.
- Using two spatulas, place the loaves onto oiled parchment paper in a baking tray and bake for 35 minutes.
- Keeping the oven on, place the three loaves onto a work surface. Using a kitchen towel, hold a loaf down and gently slice it with a serrated bread knife into 1/2” slices. Repeat with the other two loaves.
- Place the slices back on the baking tray parchment paper lying them on their base so that their sides are exposed to the heat of the second bake. Put the baking tray back into the hot oven, turn the heat off and bake for at least 20 minutes or until the oven has completely cooled down. ( It won’t make that big a difference to the crunchiness if you leave it that long).
- Remove the tray from the oven and when the slices have cooled down and dried, store them in a cookie tin.
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