INGREDIENTS:
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 18x12x1-inch baking sheet. Combine first 4 ingredients in bowl of heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat until well blended. Mix flour, almonds, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Gradually add to egg mixture, beating until blended (dough will be soft).
Turn dough out onto floured surface and gather together. Roll dough between palms and work surface into 16-inch-long log. Transfer to prepared sheet. Flatten log to 1-inch thickness. Bake until light brown and cracked on top, about 30 minutes. Transfer sheet to rack; cool log 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
Transfer warm log to work surface. Using serrated knife, cut log on sharp diagonal into 1/4- to 1/3-inch-thick slices. Arrange on baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes per side. Transfer to racks and cool (biscotti will harden while cooling). (Can be made ahead. Store airtight up to 1 week.)
Per Cookie: calories, 78; total fat, 2 g; saturated fat, 0.5g; cholesterol, 27 mg
Makes about 36.
selected by LYS
6 comments:
I have to post my comments early as I'll be out of town next week.
I don't love almonds so I subbed Ghiradelli chocolate chips, and it turned out pretty well.
My only comment about the cooking process is that I ended up with TONS of dough - I ended up putting down TWO 16-inch logs. Wasn't a big deal but I got kind of nervous that I had something wrong.
My favorite part was the subtle flavor from the almond extract. It's amazing how far just a teaspoon goes.
I also liked that, unlike most biscotti which is super duper hard, mine turned out to be only super hard with a little bit of a softer inside - it wasn't soft per se but softer than usual, which I liked.
My friends who like biscotti more than I do really liked this recipe. They said it went very well with their morning coffee, which I guess is how it is meant to be eaten.
I would say that I was very pleasantly surprised about the process and the end product for this recipe. If I had to make biscotti again, I would definitely use this recipe.
My biscotti turned out really, REALLY big! I don't know what I did wrong. I cut them along a diagonal per the recipe but the biscotti turned out to be about the size of a ruler in length! It was crazy!
I skipped the almond extract because I didn't have any and added a bit more vanilla. The result was a somewhat bland flavor. They weren't bad. Just not exciting.
I would add raisins or mini chocolate chips next time to make them look a bit more enticing. Or dip them in chocolate. Mine were very bland looking.
I really enjoyed this easy recipe, and have received good comments from the tasters. Unfortunately, I think I basked them on the second round after slicing for too long and they were a lot harder than I would have liked. Borderline teeth breakers. I preferred the consistency when I tasted them before that second round. Next time I would do a much shorter crisping process.
I also added some white chocolate chunks to the batter, and some additional spices, as well as the chocolate dip and designs you can see in my photo. The white chocolate chunks did not seem to add as much flavor as I thought it would, but gave them some more color and texture. I will definitely make these again. However, they would better be served with coffee than at a cocktail party.
I feel a little lame for not having made the last couple of recipes, but, as a biscotti fan, these sound really tasty. Laura's looked especially sexy with the chocolate drizzle...if I can make them this week, I'll be sure to weigh in.
Laura and Kara, such fancy presentation! Mine were also super big, but unlike Kara's, they were very tall/fat. I guess I should have flattened my loaf more or just made two. I agree that the flavor could have used more oomph - I also used extra vanilla instead of almond extract, so maybe that had something to do with it, and I also think it needed a bunch more cinnamon. Maybe some raisins too to add more moisture. And I agree with Laura that 20 minutes was too much.
I just read an article about how a lot of cookbooks, especially ones by celebrity authors, do not test their recipes well before publishing. Perhaps we should volunteer ourselves as professional recipe testers - between all of our comments, I think we've come up with the perfect way to make these biscotti!
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