No, I don’t intend to write a recipe every day but I have long wanted to do recipes more regularly than I do – as I try things out and they work well. And now that I’ve retired hopefully I will have the time to return to cooking more frequently.

Original photo and recipe by madstfri

Biscotti (which is only Italian for biscuit) are the nice little almond morsels one sometimes get given with coffee or with a dessert, especially in continental cafés. They are dead easy to make and I suspect may become a Christmas tradition in our house.

For 25-30 biscotti you will need:

2 large eggs
175g sugar
50g butter (preferably melted)
200g blanched almonds (toasted if you can be bothered)
250g plain white flour
30g ground almonds
1 teasp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teasp vanilla essence
1 teasp almond essence

Blend together the eggs and sugar.
Add all the other ingredients except the almonds and blend to make a sticky dough.
Now add the almonds and mix them in.
My recipe says to let the dough rest in the fridge for an hour; but I don’t bother.
Cover a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment.
Spread the mixture onto the baking sheets making a long shape about 6-8cm wide and 1cm thick. Don’t worry if it is uneven; no-one will even realise.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175°C for 25 minutes. (If you have a fan assisted oven, you’ll want to use the fan if you have used more than one baking sheet/shelf.)
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes.
Carefully remove the baking parchment and cut with a sharp knife into approx. 1cm slices. Angle the cuts to get the authentic look.
Now return the slices to the baking sheet, with one cut side down, and re-bake at 175°C for for 10-15 minutes.
Cool and store in an airtight box.
Serve with coffee or ice-cream desserts; or use as presents.

Notes:
You can use a food processor for all the mixing, it’s much quicker.
If using a food processor go gently when mixing in the almonds as you don’t want them smashed up.
Do not be tempted to over cook or you will get a hard result.
The biscotti will be a bit soft after the first bake so you will need to cut them carefully.
How long you make the second bake depends on how crunchy you like the end result. I find 10 minutes is about right: crunchy when cold but not too tough on the teeth.
There are a number of variants on this: some add a small amount of instant coffee, or citrus rind. Or you can leave out the ground almonds (if so add just a small amount more flour), the vanilla essence or almond essence.
For a really rich result you can part dip the biscotti in melted dark chocolate. Personally I think they are scrummy and rich enough without.
The end slices, which may not be good as presents, could be used for that Christmas Day trifle.