Cooking Delights: Almond Biscotti

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Almond Biscotti

Biscotti means`twice baked' and it is the second baking that draws out the biscotti's moisture and how long they are baked determines how crisp and crunchy they will be.

Biscotti do not contain oil or butter .

They are very light cookies served with coffee.

Ingredients:
Whole Almonds- 3/4 cup - roasted and chopped,
Eggs-3,
Vanilla essence- 1 and 1/4 tsp,
All purpose flour or maida- 2 cups,
White sugar ( powdered)- 3/4 cup,
Baking pwd- 1 tsp,
Salt- 1/4 tsp.

Method:
Pre heat oven to 180C or 350 F.
Place the almonds on a baking tray and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Let cool and then coarsely chop them on a wooden board.
Lower the oven temperature to 300 or 150 C
In a small bowl whisk 3 eggs and then add 1 and 1/4 tsp vanilla essence.

In a large bowl sift together flour,sugar,baking pwd and salt.
Whisk together with wire whisk.

Add the chopped almonds.

Then add the egg mixture and stir until a dough forms.

Stir with a wooden spoon,then remove the spoon and make a dough like you would make roti dough.
This dough will be very sticky.

Divide the dough into half,and on a lightly floured surface roll each half into a 7 inch log that is about 3 to 4 inch wide.( you can transfer the log and then pat and shape to 3 to 4 inch width )

( if you have a big tray you can widen the log to 4 inch- since the log is going to spread during baking, leave some space between the two logs).

Line butter paper on your baking tray and then transfer logs to the baking tray and bake for 35 minutes or until firm to the touch.

Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Transfer logs to a cutting board and using a sharp knife,cut logs into slices about 1/4 to 1/2 inch's wide ( cut slantly using a sharp knife).