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 served it up with some Italian style biscotti.
If you are looking for a good biscotti for dunking in Vin Santo, 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.
As for the Vin Santo, the vineyard where I bought mine sells their Vin Santo and their incredible olive oil on-line.
Small Batch Italian Style Biscotti for Vin Santo -- Adapted from KA Cookie Companion
1 large egg
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
⅛ to ¼ teaspoon of almond extract
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour, gently spooned and swept (4.25 oz)
½ cup roasted, unsalted almonds, coarsely chopped
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.
Nicole
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
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
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
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
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
I don't think I've ever had biscotti! And never cookies dipped in wine! That would be a fun thing to try!
Louise
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
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.