Today’s recipe is more evidence that the best recipes come from strange places — in this case, hidden within the walls of the museum of gemstone scales. That’s where I found it, but the original source is Corby Kummer’s book The Joy of Coffee
I was skeptical, and scaled the recipe down, so here’s the scaled down version in case you’re skeptical too.
For this recipe, white whole wheat flour worked beautifully, but if you don’t have any, I recommend using all-purpose rather than whole wheat. Whole wheat absorbs more moisture and will give you different results. For the sugar, you can use granulated, however, I had wonderful results with organic evaporated cane juice sugar. It added a bit of extra flavor.
Small Batch Biscotti di Prato
1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or white whole wheat flour (170 grams)
2/3 cup granulated sugar or evaporated cane juice sugar (131 grams)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda (3.75 ml)
1/4 teaspoon salt (1.25 ml)
2 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (3.75 ml)
3/4 cups whole almonds, toasted ** (60 grams)
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Set aside
In a second bowl, using an electric mixer or whisk, beat the eggs until light. Beat in the vanilla.
Blend the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients by hand; the dough should be heavy and sticky.
Add the nuts, and using your hands, knead them into the dough so they are evenly distributed. The dough will be thick and crumbly – moreso if you’ve used white whole wheat flour.
Using wet hands, shape the dough into a log of about 9 x 2 ½ inches. Place the log on the baking sheet.
Bake log at 300 degrees F. for 50 minutes. It will spread quite bit in the oven. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Leave the oven on. Transfer log to a large cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut the log every 1/2 to 3/4 inch on the diagonal. Stand the cut biscotti on the baking sheet and bake for 35 minutes. Cool on a rack.
Makes about 12 biscotti plus stubby ends for sampling.
Store the cookies in a container that admits air, which will keep them from softening.
**You can toast the almonds quickly in the microwave. Lay them on a paper towel and heat on high for 1 ½ minutes, stopping halfway through to shuffle them around. You can also toast them in the oven at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. You’ll know they’re done when they start to split. Let them cool.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for posting smaller batch recipes from time to time. Baking the full batch always ends up in me & my husband eating way too much. I’m going to try and make these tonight.
Mmm, those look good. I love how the look of it when you slice through whole almonds. It looks like you used sliced almonds.
I like making biscotti… sometimes I wonder how thick I should slice them. Usually I slice biscotti about 3/4 of an inch thickness, but I’m wondering if you slice them 1/4 of an inch, they might be easier to eat. Thin and crispy, you know?
Great to know it’s the best! I appreciate the small batch recipes too. With only three of us, I don’t like the sweet stuff laying around too much!
Sharon and RG, on one hand I feel goofy making small batch biscotti recipes. After all, it improves with age. Then again, making small batches saves money on nuts and you don’t have to eat it until the cows come home. Moo.
Emiline, my extensive biscotti research said that 1/2 inch thick was the standard, but when fruits and nuts are added, it’s practical to go 3/4 inch. One source said that dry, hard, no-oil/butter biscotti should be cut 1/4 inch thick so that it’s easier to bite. I stick with 1/2 inch.
I tried your recipe and the dough was too sticky. Couldnt even shape it as it stuck all on the hands. would you know what might be the problem?
Lyss, it should have been very dry and crumbly. I used white whole wheat, which is a tad dryer than regular white flour. However, even with regular all purpose you should have have a sticky dough. I’ve made this recipe twice since posting it and haven’t had a problem, but I will make it again once more with regular all purpose instead of white whole wheat.
But at this point, I think you are either using too little flour or using the wrong kind. Are you using regular whole wheat? Feel free to email me if you have any more info to give. Maybe we could trouble-shoot.
As for shaping, with biscotti dough, you should be able to shape it easily with wet hands even if it’s sticky. However, this dough should be dry.
thank you! yea i used regular plain flour. maybe i beat my eggs too long?? i didnt really get to shape it much. i just placed the lump of dough in the middle of the baking tray. and then form a rather log shape dough using the spatula.
anyway…the biscottis were fine after baking. : ) smells good esp when u open the container containing them.
In my country Catalunya ( Spain) these are typpicaly made in the little mountain towns. Here we call them “carquinyolis”.
Your website is great I love it!
Hugs from Barcelona
These turned out really great! I tasted one of the nubby ends, but I’m off to have one with a cup of vanilla almond tea. Mmmmmm! Thanks again! Oh! Before I go I wanted to say that my husband loves these. He has had several already and declared them “not kid cookies”, “for adults with more sophisticated palates”. He said that in front of my son, I think so that my son would leave them alone.
Thank-you for your wonderful recipe. I brushed egg white to the log before balking. My first attempt came out perfect. Will definitely be making again, this recipe ids for keeps.
Hello everyone, after trying biscotti at Demi’s Biscotti in New Jersey. I truly went nuts over her biscotti. It was just simply sensational. The Pistachio Cranberry was the best I have ever tasted. I would like to try and make yours, and I will try the pumpkin. Demi’s biscotti was twice-baked I believe.