Someone's In The Kitchen With Dinahhhhh!!!

I am definitely a winter cook. I love soups and stews and baking, and with the weather turning chilly you can expect more Rocket Jones kitchen alchemy to show up.

If you scroll through my recipe archives, you'll find this recipe for Biscochitos, a Mexican dunking cookie flavored with anise. Yum! This time around, I've got the more familiar Italian Biscotti. These are killer-good with a cup of hot coffee, tea or hot chocolate. Don't let the preparation steps scare you either, it's a lot less work than it sounds like.

Almond Biscotti

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 Tbsp brandy
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup unsalted almonds, chopped, sliced or slivered
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together well the sugar, brandy, butter, vanilla and almond extracts, eggs and nuts.
Stir in the flour, salt and baking powder.
The dough will be sticky. I use a spatula to trowel it onto a cookie sheet and form it into two long flat loaves (about 3" wide by 1" high by however long).
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until firm and cake-like.
Remove from the oven and let cool until you can handle them.
Using a serrated bread knife, slice each loaf into 3/4" thick slices on the diagonal.
Put the slices back on the cookie sheet, cut side down and return to the oven.
Bake for another 15-20 minutes, turning halfway through, until both sides are lightly toasted brown.
Let cool and store in an airtight container.

Posted by Ted at November 14, 2004 01:17 PM | TrackBack