Almond and Lemon Biscotti

Hi guys!


It's the time of year again when you can meet friends at for coffee outdoors and spend time drinking lattes, cappuccinos - enjoying life. I love something to nibble on with coffee, but I don't want an entire piece of cake. Biscotti or cantuccini are twice baked cookies originating in Italy. They are traditionally served with espresso or any coffee. My recipe is from Cynthia Barcomi's cookbook "I love Baking". You can buy very good quality cantuccini at any grocery store in Europe, but I like the idea of making my own and adding ingredients I love like chocolate, almonds, pistachios or dried fruit.  


Here's the recipe:


250g (1 + 2/3 cup) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
150g (2/3 cup) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon anise (if you like, I left it out)


60g (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
lemon zest from one lemon


100g (3 3/4oz; about 1 cup) almond slivers


1) Preheat the oven to 180°C (365°F). Line a tray with baking paper. 


2) Mix the butter, eggs and lemon zest in a bowl. Sift in the flour and baking powder and add sugar, salt and anise (if used). Stir to combine. Stir in the almond slivers (I chopped them roughly). 


3) Divide the dough in two equal parts. Form each half into a rectangle (about 8x6 inches; 22x6 cm) on the baking tray. Make sure you flour your hands so the dough doesn't stick to them. 


4) Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes. Afterwards, let it rest on the baking tray for 20 minutes. 


5) Put the rectangles on a cutting board and cut it into 1.5cm (0.6 inch) wide slices. Put the slices back on the baking tray, cutting side up. 


6) Bake at 170°C (338°F) for another 7 minutes. Turn the biscotti and bake them for 7 more minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack. You can bake the biscotti one week ahead and store them in an airtight container. 
© Copyright: Cynthia Barcomi, "I love Baking"


This is how the rectangles look after baking:

Sunny side up:

Here's how the finished Bicotti look like:

I like this recipe, because it is super easy and pretty fool-proof. Cynthia advises to first combine the dry ingredients and mix in the wet ingredients. She also forgoes the flour-sifting. I like to sift flour because it makes sure that you don't end with lumps and it takes basically not time. Mixing dry ingredients into wet ingredients can be difficult, because the dough might lump, but if you sift your dry ingredients beforehand, it works just as well. The lemon zest adds nice freshness to the biscotti while the almond and sugar combined are giving the biscotti their characteristic marzipan-esque flavor. These biscottis make a great addition to your afternoon break - whether you enjoy them plain, with coffee or tea.

Have fun trying!