Almond Biscotti
This is a recipe that we did not invent. We found it in Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food, which we purchased over the weekend.
The cookbook is amazing — I feel inspired and excited by every recipe it contains. I want to cook something on every page. This biscotti recipe is actually one of the first that I happened upon when thumbing through the book. As soon as I saw it, we beelined to the nearest grocery store to find the ingredients that we needed to bake them that afternoon.
Because we’ve been so consciously trying to cook and post mostly original recipes, it was surprisingly relaxing to just step back and follow precise instructions. No worrying that that the ratios were off, or that the ingredients would clash, and of course they turned out better than any biscotti I’ve purchased. Not that I want to revert back to the old days, but you’re looking for a biscotti recipe that’s guaranteed to have that perfect crunch, crumbly texture, and subtly sweet flavor, here it is.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole almonds
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp lemon zest
Ingredients:
Toast almonds in oven at 350 for five minutes, then cool and coarsely chop. In a bowl, combine flour and baking soda. In a separate bowl, beat together eggs and sugar until the mixture forms a ribbon (you will be able to lift it out of the bowl a few inches with the beater). Gently stir in flour mixture until just incorporated and then gently fold in almonds. On a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, form the dough into two 3-inch wide loaves. Smooth with wet hands, then cook at 350 for 25 minutes. Lower oven to 300, let loaves cool for 10 minutes, then cut them into 1/2-inch thick cookies. Bake cookies on each side for 10-12 minutes until beginning to brown.
Oh my gosh! I just bought The Art of Simple Food this weekend, too! I had taken it out from the library and had a lot of success with the recipes – especially the crisp topping recipe – and decided it was a worthy buy. I’m really looking forward to going through and cooking as many recipes as I can. I’ll look forward to your future recipes from the book!
17 Sep 2008 at 11:10 pm
i love me some good almond biscotti! the lemon zest is an interesting addition, I’ll have to take a look at that book
18 Sep 2008 at 10:02 am
Finally a biscotti with some topping! Looks good to me, I’m game to try this for sure.
20 Sep 2008 at 9:49 am
what does 1 2/4 cups of flour mean?
21 Sep 2008 at 3:10 pm
Oh no! It means 2 1/4 — good catch! I changed the recipe, so it should be correct now.
21 Sep 2008 at 3:15 pm
funny story…i figured the typo actually meant either 1 and 1/4 or 1 and 3/4 cups of flour. and so i impulsively went ahead and made it with 1 1/4 cups of flour. the batter was really runny, and i ended up with a whole cookie sheet of baked cookie in one 1″ layer (rather than two loaves). I sliced it up and then baked the slices- and they turned out pretty well! light and crispy rather than dense/crumbly. perfect for eating on their own, though not strong enough to withstand dipping in coffee.
22 Sep 2008 at 12:08 pm
Just tried this recipe… YUMMMMMM!!!
)
I will be using this recipe over and over!
THANK YOU for sharing!!
23 Sep 2008 at 3:33 pm
The ingredients call for baking powder but the instructions call for baking soda. Which is it?
Thanks!
29 Sep 2008 at 11:00 am
It’s baking powder — sorry for all of the mistakes on this post, everyone!
29 Sep 2008 at 11:08 am
Thanks so much for your swift reply. You’re helping me to get the new year off to a sweet start. Let’s bake like it’s 5769!
29 Sep 2008 at 11:46 am
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21 Oct 2009 at 2:13 am