We had company last night, which gave us a good excuse to open some Vin Santo from Fattoria San Michele a Torri. Our guests had never heard of Vin Santo, so I pretended to know lot about Vin Santo and made this small batch biscotti recipe for dunking.
If you are looking for a good biscotti for dunking in coffee or wine, this recipe adapted from the King Arthur Cookie Companion is perfect! It doesn't have a lot of add-ins (just nuts) nor does it have any oil or butter, so it's perfect for just soaking up the flavor of the wine.
Recipe
Small Batch Biscotti for Vin Santo
Adapted from KA Cookie Companion
Ingredients
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (65 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour (125 grams)
- ½ cup roasted unsalted almonds, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Beat the egg with an electric mixer for about a minute or until foamy. Add the sugar and beat sugar and egg for about 2 minutes. Beat in the baking powder, salt, and both extracts. Mixture should appear creamy. By hand, stir in the flour. When the flour is almost fully blended, stir in the nuts. Batter should be a perfect consistency – not too dry and not too sticky.
- Turn batter out onto the lined cookie sheet and shape it into a plank about 6 inches long (maybe a little longer) by 2 ½ inches across. Wet your hands a tiny bit and mold it so that it’s smooth across the top.
- Bake the plank at 350 F for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. Five minutes before you are ready to slice, mist with water. If you don’t have a mister, you can flick little bits of water of the top with your fingers (that’s what I had to do). This makes it easier to cut.
- Reduce oven heat to 325 F.
- Five minutes after you’ve misted/sprinkled the water over the top, slice biscotti slightly on the diagonal using a straight up and down motion of the knife (this keeps the tops flat) making slices about ¾ inch thick.
- Stand the slices on the cookie sheet, return them to the oven and bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let biscotti cool and crisp.
- This should give you about 9 nice size biscotti.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Nicole says
There is a recipe my family makes, which is similar to Tiramisu, but with vin santo and biscotti. The biscotti are crushed and "soaked" in the vin santo, then layered with a mascarpone mixture. It's really delish, but I prefer the coffee/chocolate combo.
Julie says
I enjoyed reading about your trip. Vin santo and biscotti sounds heavenly! I was just in Boston last weekend and we had "sesame biscotti" in the North End/Little Italy. However, it was baked like a drop cookie, and I think they called it biscotti because you have it with coffee, etc. So good!
Anna says
Amy, I know what you mean. We enjoyed it in Italy and then I was bummed to come home and know we wouldn't get that anymore. In fact, I've never been to an Italian restaurant in the states that offered biscotti.
Amy says
I had vin santo and biscotti after dinner every night in Italy. In the states, I get sad when biscotti is on the dessert menu without the vin santo 🙁
Anna says
Judy, I saw a couple of those kits. Cute idea, but we sure don't need any kits ;).
Louise, that's too bad.
Cheryl, this recipe is pretty authentic and very easy to make. Keep in mind that it's a lot harder than other biscotti and you almost have to dunk it. If you want to try one that's a little softer, look for a recipe that has oil or butter.
Cheryl says
I don't think I've ever had biscotti! And never cookies dipped in wine! That would be a fun thing to try!
Louise says
I'm probably alone here, but I really don't like dunking anything. I don't like the dregs sinking or floating in my coffee, milk, or wine. Yuck.
Judy says
I just made biscotti Tuesday - love 'em! I so envy your trips to Italy. We went for 10 days iin 2008 and had a magical time! We had a lot of Vin Santo and biscotti!! They sell them in "kits" in the Italian grocery stores.