Cosima Underwater

I should have made more.

I had such a craving for something sweet this afternoon and there was plenty of flour and a big bag of almonds in my kitchen cupboard. After a bit of surfing on the internet, I decided to make almond biscotti. I love them, but had never baked them myself before. The ingredients and instructions below are a combination of several recipes I found on the internet. They are surprisingly easy to make.

Almond Biscotti

100g of whole blanched almonds (go here on how to blanch almonds)
125g of plain white flour (but have plenty more at hand)
125g of brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
mark of 1 vanilla bean
2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit). Lightly grease a baking tray or line it with baking paper.

Lightly dry toast the almonds in a frying pan, or on a baking tray in the oven until fragrant. (Side note to self: Do not eat too much of the almonds, even if the smell is intoxicating. You’ll need them.)

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Don’t add the almonds yet.

Scrap out the mark of one vanilla bean. Beat the eggs and vanilla mark in a separate bowl until light.

Combine the eggs with the dry ingredients, but leave out the almonds. Knead the dough until it becomes elastic, adding more flour if it is too sticky.

I ended up adding a lot more flour than in the original recipe, about 100g more. How much flour you need probably depends on the particular size of the eggs and also how the flour that you use absorbs moisture. (Note to self: Keep the flour bag open and close at hand, so that you don’t need to rummage through cupboards with fingers full of sticky dough, leaving traces everywhere.)

Add the almonds and knead them into the dough.

Form long loaves about three fingers wide and one finger high, and put them on the baking tray. I ended up with two loaves about 40cm (16 inches) long.

I baked the loaves for 30 minutes, then switched off the oven, and let them sit in the oven for a further 30 minutes. They should not color much.

When I baked them, the smell of almonds and vanilla permeated the whole apartment. Little bubbles of almond oil oozed out of the biscotti loaves.

Take them out of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) again.

Let the loaves cool for a bit, then cut them diagonally into one centimeter (about half an inch) thick slices. I used a serrated bread knife.

Try stopping yourself from eating more than half of the biscotti at this point. Nibbling away the loaf ends is allowed though :).

Spread the slices out on the baking tray, cut side down, and bake for a further 10-15 minutes, turning them over after half the time. It’s better to keep a close eye on them while they bake for the second time. They should be completely dry but not color.

In theory, biscotti should keep for a few weeks in an airtight container. In reality, they will be gone by tomorrow. We are a two person household, so double or quadruple the ingredients if you are baking for more people. The original recipe called for 500g of flour and 500g of sugar.

Mmmm… crack … sweet… crack… full of almond aroma… crack… yummy!