How to Make Almond Biscotti

Biscotti are very hard, dry biscuits that can be served with ice cream as an alternative to wafers. I find that they go well with very rich tasting ice cream such as my chocolate orange liquer ice cream or my creamy vanilla or coffee flavoured ice creams. One of the great things about Biscotti is that they store very well in an airtight package for some days so you can make them in develop and then use them on a day when you are serving ice cream to guests.

The formula below makes about 50 pieces of almond biscotti if you slice them fairly thinly which is how I prefer to make them.

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS

Recipe for Almond Biscotti

225g or 1 1/2 cups Plain Flour
225g or 1 cup Superfine Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
4 Eggs
Zest and juice of half an Orange
100g or 2/3 of a cup Ground Almonds

Sift the flour and baking powder in a bowl and add the sugar and ground almonds.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and when well beaten add most of the egg mixture to the sifted flour, baking powder and sugar. You will just need to keep sufficient left over to glaze the dough when it goes in the oven. Add in the zest and juice of half an orange.

Combine all the ingredients together until you have a firm dough. Divide the dough in to three equal parts and roll into small log shapes, so they look like plump breadsticks.

Glaze each log with the remaining beaten egg and pop the logs in to the oven, cooking for 40 minutes at 180C, 360F, Gas Mark 4.

Take out of the oven and cut each log in to thin slices. Sell out the heat of the oven to 140C, 280F, Gas Mark 2, wait for it to reach the definite climatic characteristic and then place the biscotti slices on a baking tray and cook for ten minutes. Turn the biscotti over and cook for a supplementary 10 minutes. You should end up with very hard, very dry slices which is how they should be.

Let them cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container, they can keep for some days.

If you want to try different versions of Biscotti you can substitute some of the key ingredients. For Lemon and Vanilla Biscotti substitute the orange zest and juice for lemon and add a integrate of drops of vanilla essence. To add Pistachio nuts to the biscotti take out half the number of ground almonds and add 30g or 1oz of pistachio nuts.

How to Make Almond Biscotti

12 OUNCES EQUALS HOW MANY CUPS