Chef Mik's Biscotti

Today I’m baking biscotti which is the plural, the singular being biscotto an Italian cookie whose heritage can be traced to the Northern Port city of Genoa. The city itself is also famous for giving the world pesto and salami and the Italian sea captain turned explorer Cristoforo Colombo or Christopher Columbus in English. The name biscotti refers to the cookie being twice baked or cooked much like ricotta which derives its name from the cheese curd having been cooked twice. Biscotti similar to the English term biscuits which refers simply to cookies themselves

Biscotti is quite similar to the Yiddish or Eastern European cookie mandelbrodt or almond cookie in English in so much as they are both crispy, often filled with a wide verity of varying ingredients and they are both prepared and baked first as a loaf before being sliced much like bread then baked again

The cookies themselves are quite easy to prepare and lend themselves well to interpretation which is great for the more advanced and avid risk takers or those with certain food restrictions that may dictate what ingredients can be used.

We here at FoodPerfected offer a wide verity of biscotti, however when I bake them for myself I like to keep it simple. That said some bakers I know like to beat their egg whites to stiff peeks before incorporating them into the batter which is fine but by no means mandatory, others are very particular about the type of flour used as well as the fillers. While still others dip them in chocolate or decorate them after they have been baked. My advice as always is stick to the basics first and master them before biting off more then you can chew.

Shopping List

Almonds

Sugar

Butter

Eggs

Galliano

Vanilla extract

Flour

Baking powder

Anis seed

Salt

My Mad Method

Ready to serve!!!

Cream together 2.5 dl sugar and 115g butter

Add two eggs, one at a time and whisk until fluffy

Add wet ingredients: 2 TBSP Galliano and 1 tsp vanilla extract whisk until well incorporated

Add dry ingredients: 6 dl flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 TBSP anise seeds (crushed) and ¼ tsp salt mix until you have a good semi moist cookie dough

Fold in 2 dl toasted cracked almonds

Form a uniform loaf on a sheet pan that has been covered with well greased parchment paper

Bake 30 to 40 minutes in a 175c preheated oven, when done allow it to rest 20 to 30 minutes before slicing it, reduce the oven temp to 150c

When you have sliced the loaf arrange the cookies on the same parchment paper and bake 10 minutes flip the cookies and bake ten minutes longer or until golden brown and crisp