Basic Biscotti
This crisp Italian treat is delicious dunked in coffee or a dessert wine.
Ingredients
- 3 TBL olive oil (light) or butter
- 2/3 cup sugar (or 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup Splenda)
- 1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg beaters)
- 3 TBL buttermilk
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (or 1 TBL flavored liqueur)
- 1 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 tsp double-acting baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds (or finely chopped)
- 2 T slivered almonds
Hardware
- 1 8 x 8 pan, 1 inch sides
- Medium bowl
- Large bowl
- Whisk
- Electric mixer
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 deg.
Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in medium bowl.
Cream together oil and sugar in large bowl until smooth. This traps in air bubbles to help biscotti
rise.
Mix in egg and beat until creamy. Mix in vanilla extract, salt, and
buttermilk.
Mix dry stuff with wet stuff, a little at a time, then mix in almonds.
Chill dough for 10 minutes to relax the gluten.
Put in greased pan (or spray with cooking oil). The dough should be
about 1/2 inch thick -OR-
Roll out dough into two separate loafs 3 inches wide and 1/2 inch high
and place on greased cookie sheet.
Sprinkle top with 2 tablespoons almonds.
The dough will rise to an inch after cooking.
Bake at 350, uncovered, until top is pale gold, about 30 minutes
(rotate pan after 15 minutes to compensate for oven variations). Let
cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack then remove biscotti from pan.
Cut biscotti width-wise using long serrated bread knife. Put
pieces on baking pan (bottom side down) making sure they do not touch
each other and bake for 10 minutes.
Let cool several hours on wire rack
so they are very crisp.
Store in tightly covered container at room temperature up to 1 month.
Doug's Notes
I tried various mixtures of wheat/white flour using wheat but they
did not taste very good.
I like to cut biscotti to form 3 inch long x 3/4 inch wide pieces.
When baking a second time you can cook the biscotti 5 minutes on each
side.
Craisins are good instead of almonds, or bottom dipped in chocolate or
nothing!
The buttermilk's acid helps leaven the dough.
