Biscotti

[Ling]

I'm not that big on biscotti, but my mom is. I've tried perhaps 10 or so recipes so far, including some of the more popular ones on Epicurious mentioned in this thread, and the one in the Baking with Julia cookbook.

My favourite one is the biscotti from King Arthur's flour. It calls for hazelnuts, but I've also made them with almonds. Delicious!

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/contentmgr/...ls.php/id/47458

edit: re-posting the link again, since it seems like the site has been updated and the old link wasn't working

Edited March 1, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

I find myself in the need to have a killer anise biscotti recipe. My manager wants to include this cookie in every order of capuccino, asap. Can anyone share a recipe they've made and are certain is excellent, please? I have no time to experiment right now.

Thank-you in advance.

[zilla369]

Wendy, i have a lot of confidence in the Godiva recipe linked above, and i've substituted all sorts of other liqueurs for the Godiva, and even skipped the liqueur entirely. Why not just replace the Godiva with a couple shots of Pernod and/or add some fennel seed?

I've made hundreds of these as "bye-byes". Only problems i ever had with the recipe was failing to beat the egg mixture long enough when i was in a hurry.

[emmalish]

I agree. I've made the Godiva recipe many times and it's excellent.

Ling, thanks for that link! I'll check it out (with all this experimenting, I'm going to have some very happy co-workers!)

[ludja]

I find myself in the need to have a killer anise biscotti recipe. My manager wants to include this cookie in every order of capuccino, asap. Can anyone share a recipe they've made and are certain is excellent, please? I have no time to experiment right now.

Thank-you in advance.

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I've made a recipe several times that I like very much. It's from Lindsey Shere in Chez Panisse Desserts. It's flavored w/anise extract, anise seeds and a little bit of grappa. The cookie also has almonds in it which I'm not sure that you want. I suspect the biscotti would also be good without the almonds added. The recipe yields a great traditional biscotti.

Edited March 1, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Ling]

I agree. I've made the Godiva recipe many times and it's excellent.

Ling, thanks for that link! I'll check it out (with all this experimenting, I'm going to have some very happy co-workers!)

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You're welcome. One of the reasons why I prefer this recipe is because it yields slightly softer biscotti to the other ones I've tried.

[Wendy DeBord]

Thank-you Zilla and others. Two votes on one recipe is worthy a try. I'll be making the Godiva recipe tomarrow morning using all almonds (maybe a small amount of hazelnuts too) and anise oil in place of the Godiva. I'll report back with how it worked out for me, thanks again.

[wine&dine]

My absolute favorite biscotti is the lemon almond at Bouchon bakery in Napa.

Below is a Jewish Mandelbrodt recipe:

3 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

3 cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Use orange extract if you are making the raisin version

1/2 cup flour (for rolling out)

chopped walnuts, chocolate chips or raisins

cinnamon and sugar (mixed to taste)

Beat eggs, add sugar, add melted butter.

Mix together the flour, baking powder & baking soda.

Add to egg mixture.

Add walnuts or chocolate chips or whatever you desire.

* I love substituting vanilla paste for vanilla extract. I have tried substituting the juice from an orange ( with some orange zest) for orange extract and using toasted sliced almonds in that version.

With 1/2 cup of flour form 3 loafs and generiously sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20~25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Reduce oven to 325 degrees.

Cut at the diagonal into 3/4 inch thick slices.while still warm

Place biscotti about 2" apart and bake for 6 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

[Dana]

Our very own Malawry has a recipe for black pepper almond biscotti that she used while in culinary school - part of a report she gave to her class, I think. I made it several times, and it is delish. It would be in her blog from back then, although I don't know where it is, and don't know how to link it even if I did - maybe someone else with computer skills can find it.

[FoodMan]

This past Xmas issue of Food and Wine had a Pistachio-Cranberry biscotti that was nothing short of amazing (just chop the pistachios instead of leaving them whole though). The cookies with their green/red colros made excellent Xmas gifts.

Wendy- it's probably too late, but try roasting and grinding fennel seeds and add to the batter. They add a wonderful taste and aroma.

Elie

[emmalish]

When will I learn I need to write things down? I always do this – I think I'll remember something, so I won't write it down. Later? Of course I can't remember what I was thinking.

Case in point... last year I made some lemon pistachio biscotti for a friend's party. It was delicious. Nice & crispy, but not break-your-teeth hard. I made it several more times. Yummy every time.

Earlier this year, I decided to make some more. Tasty yes, but hard as a frickin' rock. I tried several times with the same results. Ugh.

Fast forward to tonight. I was looking for a completely different recipe (which of course I didn't file where it belongs and still haven't been able to find), and in my travels I find two... count 'em, TWO different recipes for lemon pistachio biscotti. What the hell? One of them started out as lemon pistachio, and the other started out as just pistachio and I'd made notes on it to add lemon. So which is which? At what point did I decide to take a non-lemon recipe and modify it? And why?

Well thank goodness for this thread. On the first page I posted that I was tweaking a recipe for lemon pistachio biscotti, and noted that the recipe contained butter. Of the two recipes I found today, one has butter and one doesn't – which I'm sure is the deciding factor in how they turned out. Thank you eGullet!

I think what happened was that I'd found a recipe for lemon pistachio, thought it sounded good, but instead decided to modify a recipe I knew worked well. Then when I decided to make it again, found the original recipe. I gotta tell you guys, it was driving me crazy that I couldn't get the recipe to work when I made it earlier this year. I thought I was losing my mind...

[dockhl]

I am looking for some savory biscotti recipes for munching with wine.......

does anyone have one that has worked well for them? I hate to just leave out the sugar in a sweet one....

[merstar]

I am looking for some savory biscotti recipes for munching with wine.......

does anyone have one that has worked well for them?  I hate to just leave out the sugar in a sweet one....

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I made this one with some tweaks awhile ago - very good.

Savoury Mediterranean Biscotti

http://www.recipezaar.com/59869

[dockhl]

merstar~

that one looks really yummy. I made a basil/walnut/parmesan on tonight that was OK but needed salt and more basil. The recipe callled for dried and I used a huge handful of fresh. Texture is excellent but I need to tweak the flavor. My husband thought it needed olives..I'll show him your recipe !

[merstar]

merstar~

that one looks really yummy. I made a basil/walnut/parmesan on tonight that was OK but needed salt and more basil. The recipe callled for dried and I used a huge handful of fresh. Texture is excellent but I need to tweak the flavor. My husband thought it needed olives..I'll show him your recipe !

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Hope you two like it!

[merstar]

For anyone interested in a chocolate biscotti recipe, just found this one - looks great:

Black Chocolate Biscotti:

http://www.godiva.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?id=560

[SondraG]

I hope I'm not off topic but what are biscotti?

I'm Italian and biscotti (for us Italians at least) is just the general term for biscuits and cookies. You're clearly talking about some specific kind of biscuit/cookie here. From the baking description I would immagine they're variations of the cokies called tozzetti/anicini/cantuccini/etc (wine cookies if you like) which in one form or another are found everywhere in Italy. Am I right, or are they something else still?

I'm Italian as well, and understand your confusion. What they're talking about it something similar to Cantuccini di Prato.

Here's the recipe I use:

Combine in a bowl:

1 3/4 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup toasted almonds

In a separate bowl, whisk 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Add to the flour and knead until firm.

Shape into 3 1-1/2" thick logs and bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 30 minutes.

Slice diagonally into 1" slices, spread out on the baking sheet, and bake 5 minutes, turning once.

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I have your recipe in the oven even as we speak. DH is Italian and he likes the crisp, crunchy biscotti style, so I think he'll like these. Didn't see baking temp in your post, so I am baking at 300.

I baked Lenox Almond Biscotti yesterday from Dorie Greenspan's new book. Love them, they have cornmeal and butter. I like the butter variety, but DH will not.

[Teri Everitt]

I find myself in the need to have a killer anise biscotti recipe. My manager wants to include this cookie in every order of capuccino, asap. Can anyone share a recipe they've made and are certain is excellent, please? I have no time to experiment right now.

Thank-you in advance.

←

Hey Wendy,

This is a master recipe that can be changed with different nuts and flavouring. I "inherited" it at one of my previous jobs, so forgive the awkward format. It's a fairly big recipe that can be mixed in a hobart.

Ingredients:

Butter 2 lbs

Sugar 6 cups

Eggs 16 large

Flavour 2/3 cup (amaretto, hazelnut liqueur etc)

AP Flour 17 cups

Baking powder 1/4 cup

Salt 2 teaspoons

Anise seed 2 tablespoons ( you can chop it, but I usually pulse it in the food processor with a couple of cups of the flour)

Toasted chopped nuts 4 cups

Cream butter and sugar. Add in eggs and flavouring on low speed. Add dry ingredients in 2 stages. Dough will be sticky.

Scale out at 1 3/4 lb and bundle in saran wrap. Freeze dough that you don't need right away. Use 3 bundles per batch and divide each bundle into 3 and shape into logs. Chill logs on parchment lined sheet pans and then bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Rotate and bake for another 10 minutes. Let cool slightly and slice. Bake slices for 10 minutes, rotate and bake for another 10 minutes.

For Orange Pecan : Pecans, orange zest and orange liqueur.

For Cranberry Pistachio: Pistachios, chopped dried cranberries, whisky.

For Cinnamon Hazelnut: Replace sugar with brown sugar, use hazelnuts, hazelnut liqueur and 1/4 cups cinnamon.

Anway, there are dozens of variations you can do with flavour. Again sorry about the awkward format, I do have a version where I had calculated the weight for the flour (you just KNOW someone will come up and talk to while you're scooping out 17 cups of flour) but I misplaced that copy of the recipe.

[Pam R]

Hi folks.

Just a reminder to please add your recipes to recipeGullet. Makes it much easier to find things down the road.

Thanks,

Pam

[Paul Stanley]

Well, I made futronic's "basic" version of cantucci, exactly as directed (except I had a lemon around so I grated the rind in too, which worked nicely). They're very good, and could easily be varied (hazlenuts, anise, orange, pisatchios etc) if one were minded to do so ... though my recollection of these in Italy is that they are pretty much always almond and plain almond at that: I felt treacherous even adding the lemon!

Proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating ... and between us my boyfriend and I have more than half finished the batch. They dunk beautifully.

[emmalish]

With this colder weather, I'm in the mood for baking. I've made three batches of biscotti in the last week. This is the lemon pistachio biscotti, which (even though I'm a chocoholic) is my absolute favourite. I use the zest of 6 lemons, plus a couple tbsp of juice, so it's nice & lemon-y.

[Live It Up]

emmalish--those look amazing! This thread prompted a craving for biscotti a couple of days ago. I was thinking about making some, but when I went looking through my cookbooks I couldn't really find any recipes that looked good. (I've realized lately that there is a huge hole in my cookbook collection where baking books should be). Anyway, if I may be so bold: recipe please! Thanks!

[misstenacity]

I've only made biscotti a few times, but these are the best so far:

Rosemary Cashew Biscotti

They are a David Rosengarten recipe and actually pretty low in fat, with amazing flavor from the rosemary. I've got some drying in the kitchen now, so I think I might just whip up a new batch....

Andrea

in Albuquerque

[emmalish]

Live It Up, I started with this recipe from Tyler Florence, but added the zest of 6 lemons, plus 2 tbsp lemon juice (both added just before adding the dry ingredients). I also found that I had to bake for 10 minutes per side (rather than the 5 in the recipe), but that may just be my oven or the fact that I added a bit more liquid to the recipe (or personal preference – I like my biscotti nice & crisp). I also prefer my biscotti a little thinner, so I sliced them closer to 1/2" thick.

[joancassell]

I have a few recipes, but none come out the right texture or taste in my opinion. My goal is to have a dense, dry, not too sweet biscotti that is full of flavor and prefect for dipping into something warm.

Any hints, recipes, or links?

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I'm not a dessert person, but I do find my biscotti addictive. Here's how I make them:

Biscotti di Prato (recipe from "Biscotti" by Lou Seibert Pappas, with my additions)

1. Preheat oven to 300.

2. Toast 1 CUP BLANCHED ALMONDS, 1/2 CUP BLANCHED HAZELNUTS till fragrant and lightly colored. Cool, then buzz in food processor - a few pieces can be whole, some can be halved, some can be just powder.

3. In a small bowl, beat 3 EGGS, 1 TSP. VANILLA, 1/4 TSP. ALMOND EXTRACT,GRATED PEEL OF A SMALL ORANGE with small whisk.

3. In a larger bowl, mix 2 CUPS (9 1/2 OZ) UNBLEACHED FLOUR, 7/8 CUP SUGAR, 1 TSP. BAKING SODA, DASH OF SALT. (Don't bother using a mixer, a wooden spoon is faster and more convenient.)

4. Add egg mixture, stir well, then add nuts. Blend well.

5. On a Silpat liner, in a baking sheet, pat dough into two logs, roughly 1/2 inch thick, and about 12 inches long, spacing them 2 inches apart.

6. Bake for 50 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes, transfer carefully to a rack.

7. With a serrated knife, slice diagonally at a 45 degree angle about 1/2 inch thick (use a gentle sawing motion, if you press to hard, they'll crumble).

8. Lay slices flat on the baking sheet (you may need an additional baking sheet- no need for silpat now) and return to a 275 oven for about 15 minutes. Turn over and bake 10 or 15 minutes more.

9. Store in tightly-covered container.