Biscotti And Variations
Submitted by bocca on December 10, 2005 at 2:44 pm

DESCRIPTION
Biscotti and variations

SUMMARY
Yield 0 File under Cookies Brownies Bars

INSTRUCTIONS
The recipe by itself is from the KAF Cookie Companion
I will add my changes after that, I want to make sure you all know where the original recipe came from.

2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350. LIghtly grease large baking sheet or use parchment paper.
In a med size bowl beat the eggs, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla until creamy. The mixtuer will be thick and light colored. Lower mixer speed and slowly add in flour beat gently just until incorporated.
Transfer the dough to the sheet and shape into a log about 14 in long and 2 1/2 in wide and about 3/4 in thick. Smooth the top with a wet dough scraper.
Bake the dough for 25 min. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 to 25 min. Five min before cutting spray mist with room temp water. This softens the crust to make cutting easier.
Reduce oven to 325. Wait 5 more min and slice, how thick is up to you, 1/2 to 3/4 in thick.
Spread apart on sheet, leave standing up though.
Bake for 25 minutes.

4 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups all purp flour

Beat eggs with sugar,oil, baking powder, salt and vanilla. I turn my kitchenaid on 3 to 4 and leave it for a few mintues. The whole thing is thick and yellow/creamy.
Slowly add the flour in just blending. Scrape down, you know how those bowls on kitchenaids hold things in the bottom.
There are 2 ways to do this. Bake on parchment and remove to cutting board when baked for slicing OR bake on geased sheet and slice on the sheet pan.
Ok, I pat the dough out on to the pan and get the basic shape going but with damp hands I smooth it out and get rid of any rough edges. This is very nice dough to work with.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes, thats what works for me. With damp hands rub across the top of the biscotti, let set for a min and then with your best bread knife slice away. I use the first joint on my pointer finger to measure my slices, but I start by cutting the end piece off-really just a trim-only trim the end you are starting at, as you will trim the other end when you are getting to it. This will make sense when you do it.
BEFORE you start to slice, turn your oven down to 325 and I prop the door open while I am slicing to help cool the oven down. Once sliced, set the biscotti a bit apart from each other and bake for 25 min. I NEVER bake longer because I do not like mine hard, but you can bake longer if you like.
I let cool on a rack and the into plastic bags for storing in a tin.

Mandarin-pistachio-cran
2 mandarins
2 cup pistachio rough chop
1 cup dried cranberries not chopped

After you have beat the egg mixture, stir in mandarins.
Slice them in half and with your hands/fingers, remove as much of the juice and pulp as you can into a bowl.

(If you want to zest them you can, it is a nice flavor but thin skinned so you may want to use clementines, which ever works for you and is available.)
btw I think these have a better flavor here then a regular orange.
After adding the flour, dump in pistachios and dried cranberries.
Bake following previous directions.
When you slice you must be careful with the chunks, the biscotti will break easier. Of course those are the ones YOU EAT!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE-ESPRESSO-PECAN

2 1/2 tsp espresso pwd
sub the gran sugar with brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp cocoa (hershey regualr)
2 cups rough chop pecans (I break them up with my fingers)
1 1/2 cups of the best choc chips guittard for me
Add the espresso pwd with the eggs
Sift the cocoa into the flour so there are no lumps and then stir in the chunky stuff at the end.
I baked this one for about 35 min and the second bake only 25.
My family loves this one the best although some would prefer other types of nuts so I am going to make one with almond.

BTW I always sift my baking powder into the sugar so it does not clump up at all which would be a bad thing!!!

• This topic was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by htfoot.