I’ve never been a big fan of biscotti. I think it’s the hard texture that does it (or doesn’t do it) for me. But I realized you can bake tasty biscotti that are soft, easy to make, and have great flavor.
I got the recipe below from a cooking class I recently attended. I always thought biscotti took forever to make — not these. The biscotti were easy and delicious. Try it — you’ll like it!
Lemon Biscotti
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest
Preheat oven to 350-degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Then whisk the sugar and eggs together in a large bowl until it’s a light yellow color. Add the vanilla and lemon zest.
Sprinkle the dry mixture over the wet mixture and fold together until it’s just combined. Don’t over mix!
Halve the dough and turn both portions onto the baking sheet. Using floured hands (lots of flour), quickly stretch each portion of dough into a 13″ x 2″ loaf. Your loaves will look sort of like this.
I sprinkled granulated sugar on top and then baked the loaves for about 30 minutes, rotating the tray once during cooking. Remove the sheet when the loaves are slightly golden on top and are just starting to crack. Cool the loaves for 10 minutes.
Now here’s where I changed things to suit my palate. At this point, I cut the biscotti at an angle into rectangles and left it at that. They were hard on the outside but still chewy on the inside, the way I like them.
But if you like your biscotti hard – the tradition way they should be – here’s what you do next. Lower the oven to 325-degrees. Cut the biscotti into pieces and lay the slices about 1/2″ apart on the baking sheet. Return them to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.
You can use this recipe and swap out the lemon for orange, or add nuts and dried fruit, or mini chocolate chips. The possibilities are endless! Let me know if you make them or if you have a favorite biscotti recipe.