Seeking a basic Biscotti Recipe

I want a simple Biscotti recipe I can modify to include stuff I have in my pantry.  I want it to be fairly long-lasting at room temp.  

Today I have ground almonds and candy ginger left over.  Sometimes I have whole nuts, or other yummy treats.  

Usually, when I look up a recipe, there's generally a theme, but biscotti recipes are all over the place.  Some have soft dough, others stiff.  Some butter, some oil, some no fat at all.  Some cut hot, some need to cool completely.  It's hard to know where to start.

Do you have a favourite biscotti recipe?

This has been my favourite biscotti recipe for many years.

I use a bread knife to slice them and easiest to cut whilst warm so use a clean tea towel or napkin to hold the logs.

You can replace a portion of the nuts for dried fruit/ part of the flour for cocoa powder/ground almonds if you wish.

This is a rather dry mix so add a little water if it's not binding.

Megan's excellent recipe is very similar to the go-to biscotti recipe given to me by an Italian baker. The two little nuances that may be helpful to some readers are:
+Lightly toast the nuts before adding to dough
+Moisten the dough with brandy or fortified wine instead of water (the alcohol evaporates and the brandy enhances flavor/complexity)

My grandma’s recipe is very similar too! And it has a very long shelf life at room temp—she always had them in a glass jar on her counter and I don’t remember them ever tasting stale.

I make lots of baking extracts at home so I usually forego the almond extract and use cardamom or juniper berry or something else I’ve brewed!

Subbing in leftovers like you mentioned works well (ground nuts from making nut-milk, leftover cooked grains). Just make sure they’re relatively dry (sometimes I toast and crumble them before adding) because the dough can’t have too much moisture.

Enjoy your baking adventure!

Jessica, is this correct......1/4 CUP of almond extract???  Thanks!

HA! Definitely not. It’s 1/4tsp. I had lost my handwritten copy years ago and a family member sent this! Also, looking at this typed version again with a critical eye—it should be baking powder since there’s no acid in the dough to activate baking soda. Thanks for finding that!

This is the biscotti recipe I use. To be fair, I can’t promise you it will last a long time at room temperature, largely because we eat them too quickly to find out. Enjoy!

Well, they are in the oven for the first bake.  

Today I'm making yuzu-almond and almond with candied ginger.  

Question:  Do you cut your's when they are hot, cold, or some other temp?  

What's the trick to getting it not to crumble to bits?

Would it be better to undercook the first bake to make it less crumbly?  

r ranson wrote:Well, they are in the oven for the first bake.  

Today I'm making yuzu-almond and almond with candied ginger.  

Question:  Do you cut your's when they are hot, cold, or some other temp?  

What's the trick to getting it not to crumble to bits?

Would it be better to undercook the first bake to make it less crumbly?  

I cut them while they’re still slightly warm. You’ll get crumbles anyway, but they shouldn’t be super-crumbly. The second bake is what dries them out to crispy and crumbly. If you’re getting a ton of crumbs, I think you’re probably under-baking.

Megan Palmer's recipe is excellent!  I love the way she posted the handwritten version and I saved it as an image in my recipe file with her name credited in the file name.  Thank you so much Megan for sharing this joyful recipe with us!!

So r ranson,
Did you cut them after about 10 minutes, still warm as Leanne suggested?
Did you taste the delicious crumbs and decide to devour those unsightly end pieces before or after the second bake?
Did your family come into the kitchen and circle to snatch the second bake before they went into the extended storage cookie jar?
Eagerly awaiting your full report...

I like to make pumpkin bread biscotti.  Just use your favorite pumpkin bread recipe,  bake it, slice and lay out on a cookie sheet, then back in the oven on low temp or put in dehydrator until dry.  Could be done with any kind of cake or bread that doesn't contain ingredients that get too hard when dried.  I tried making biscotti with banana bread and don't recommend it unless you're going to dip in a beverage.  It got really hard with the bananas.
On a different note, I dehydrated cornbread once to keep it fresh for a trip... Loved how crunchy it was, and worked well in soup!

I've made variations on this recipe many times:



I generally don't do any chocolate (or if I do, I melt chocolate rather than making the glaze), and will occasionally add more nuts (or different), some aniseed, orange zest, different extracts, etc. as the mood hits, but the base recipe makes an excellent biscotti...

To keep the pre-second bake log from crumbling, I let it cool 10 min, and use a damp cotton dish cloth or paper towels to hold the top and sides of the log.  My knife is a supper sharp bread knife and I make very small shallow sawing motions.  They slice cleaner than without the special treatment.

My recipes are from the King Arthur Baking Co.'s little booklet and there are all kinds.  I prefer the less egg-y more flour-y dry ones, they keep well and stay crisp.  Oh, and I like then dipped in my coffee in the AM.  But traditionally they are often served with Vin Santo.  I'll have to see if I can make Vin Santa, hmmm.