Holiday Favorite Biscotti
Unlike many traditional cookies, biscotti are often lower in fat and sugar. Add some heart healthy nuts and you have a satisfying and relatively light treat! This delicious cookie can easily be made vegan & vegetarian friendly.
What is biscotti?
Biscotti is a traditional Italian pastry, baked twice to give them their dry crunchy texture. In fact, the word biscotti derives from ‘bis’, the latin word for twice, and ‘coctum’, the latin word for baked. Their crusty exterior makes them ideal for dipping in hot coffee or tea.
If there’s one treat that reminds me of my childhood, it’s biscotti. My mom and I would spend hours leading up to Christmas mixing and rolling out dough to make the perfect biscotti cookie, often making 75+ in a day. At the end of the night, we would sit together with our mugs full of tea and dip the biscotti into the hot liquid until the chocolate drizzle started to melt.
Every year around the holidays, I receive requests from friends and family for our homemade biscotti. Yes, it’s that good. What everyone doesn’t realize, is just how easy it is to make. For all you ladies (or gentlemen) who have doubts about their baking skills, this recipe is for you!
Not only are they simple to make, but they stay fresh longer than most other cookies and don’t break as easily. AKA there’s less reason to worry the cookies you’re giving away may become stale or broken before eaten!
During college, I decided to study abroad in Australia for five months. Since making and sharing biscotti had always been associated with such fond memories, I made enough for my mom to have one every single morning until I returned home to the US. That’s close to 150 pieces. She enjoyed them daily, and I took solace in the fact that I could provide her with some kind of comfort even from across the ocean.
So what’s in these delicious and oddly addicting cookies?
Almond Biscotti
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 3 cups flour
- 4 eggs (or egg substitutes)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp almond extract
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients together until well blended. The consistency will be sticky and moist [similar to cookie dough].
- Sprinkle flour onto a surface and kneed the dough until smooth and only slightly sticky.
- You may need to sprinkle additional flour on top as needed.
- Cut the dough in half and roll out each piece to a size of 4 inches by 12 inches and about ½ inch thick.
- Place each roll on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 20 minutes for 350 degrees.
- Remove from the oven and immediately cut into ½ inch slices.
- Turn the oven up to 425 degrees.
- Turn each slice on its side and bake for 3 minutes.
- Remove and flip each slice. Bake again for 3 minutes. Biscotti should look toasted on each side.
Notes:
If desired, drizzle cooled biscotti with melted dark chocolate.
Calories
70Fat (grams)
2Carbs (grams)
12Sugar (grams)
5Protein (grams)
1.5