Freshly Baked Biscotti

When I was living in Austin, Texas while going to college, my aunt and uncle lived just north of me. Being avid bakers and cooks (my step-uncle is Italian), I spent many weekends and Holiday breaks up at their house learning to make some tasty Italian treats!

One of my favorites (besides focaccia) is freshly baked biscotti. Biscotti, also known as cantucci, are long, flat cookies that are baked twice...once as a flat loaf and again when cut into slices to crisp them up on all sides. I already have a weakness for freshly baked cookies but these biscotti are another level...especially with the chopped almonds, I'll justify eating a dozen because there's protein in them. 

Regardless of my addiction to sweets, these are easier to make than you might think and are great when paired with your morning cappuccino...or just after dinner as a quick dessert served with vin santo! They also make a great housewarming or hostess gift.

Photo by Alan Richardson at The Splendid Table

Biscotti

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 4 cups sifted flour plus more for kneading
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp Anise extract
• 1 tsp Orange extract (yes, there's a lot of extracts so feel free to omit if you don't like any BUT I absolutely think the combination of all of these is worth it)
• 1/2 cut finely chopped almonds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 cup Rum

Recipe: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer (it gets very thick and sticky, I wouldn't recommend doing this by hand) at medium speed until well blended. 
3. Place the dough on a floured board and knead the dough lightly.
4. Keep sprinkling with flour and kneading until dough is smooth and only slightly sticky. 
5. Cut the dough in half, place on a greased cookie sheet and squish/shape to the size of a rectangle (about 3" x 12" and 1/2" thick). Use two cookie sheets if they're going to be too crowded. Use an oiled knife to form and smooth out the top and edges. 
6. Bake for 25 minutes. 
7. Remove from oven and turn oven up to 425 degrees F.
8. Cut at an angle into slices about 1/2-3/4" thick. This must be done while the cookie loaves are hot! 
9. Turn each slice on its side and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
10. Remove from over and cool for 30 minutes (or just long enough to start munching on them without burning yourself). Enjoy!

Yield: About 40 biscotti, depending on how small you cut your cookies.