Vittoria's Traditional Italian Biscotti with Almonds and Orange Zest
This traditional almond orange biscotti recipe is not your generic hard as a rock twice baked biscuit. This is a tender melt-in-your-mouth from Vittoria's classic Italian kitchen to yours.
Servings: 3 doz
Ingredients
- 1 large orange
- 2 cups whole bark on almonds
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder (sifted through the sugar)
- 2 whole large eggs
- 1 yolk (white optional, below)
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt (sifted through flour)
- 1 teaspoon excellent quality vanilla or vanilla paste
Instructions
Instructions for Orange Peel and Almonds
- Using peeler, peel orange without any white pith; slice peels into slivers or threads then slice into 1-2 centimeter lengths
- Set aside in small bowl
- Toast whole almonds, watching very carefully and stirring constantly until fragrant and starting to brown
- Set aside in bowl
Instructions for Biscotti
- Pre-heat oven to 350F
- Place butter in large bowl, adding 1 cup sugar, and baking powder; mix at medium speed until thick and frothy and sugar is completely dissolved
- Whisk in eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla extract
- Sift salt and flour into large bowl over wet ingredients; add almonds and orange peel and fold ingredients together by hand with wooden spoon until completely combined (the mixture will be very thick)
- Weigh dough mass; divide by 4 and portion into 4 equal pieces; shape into 4 loaf-like logs (each weighs about 340 grams)
- Place each log onto parchment paper covered cookie sheet; gently flatten with palm
- Optional: whisk water and egg white; brush each loaf with mixture and sprinkle tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons of regular or course sugar (we preferred it without sugar)
- Bake at 350F for 20 minutes; watch that they don’t brown too much as they will be baked again.
- Remove from oven; do not remove from cookie sheets until completely cooled as loaves are very delicate at this stage and will break
- Adjust oven temperature to 325F
- Once completely cooled, carefully place on cutting board and cut into ½ inch slices with a very sharp knife
- Place slices on cookie sheet standing up, not laid on side; bake at 325 F for 7 minutes, turn sheets around in oven and bake 7 more minutes, ensuring cookies do not brown further*
- Remove to a wire rack to cool
Instructions for Using Thermomix
- Weigh butter, sugar and baking powder into TM bowl; cream together for 5 minutes at speed 4 until thick and frothy and sugar is completely dissolved
- Add vanilla, salt, eggs and yolk to TM bowl; whisk together for 30 seconds at speed 4
- Remove ingredients from TM bowl into large bowl; continue as per #4 above
Notes
*every oven is different; 8-9 minutes of baking before turning sheet may be required