Today was a snowy Sunday. I was in no mood to brave the slushy, icy, dangerous roads. My baking adventure would therefore be limited to whatever supplies I had in my not-so-well-stocked pantry. Flipping through the pages of Mark Bittman's
How to Cook Everything, I was surprised by a never-before-noticed recipe for biscotti.
Biscotti, to me, are the boring, hard cookies you buy when there's nothing left in the coffee shop's pastry case. They sit in a lonely jar near the register, coated in a waxy layer of stale chocolate. They seem to have been there forever. They hold zero appeal.
I believed that homemade biscotti might somehow be different...
...and, boy, was I right!
Biscotti are simple, simple, simple. All you need: butter, flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder, a pinch of salt and vanilla or almond extract. I used vanilla and also added cinnamon and white chocolate chips; these flavors are what really made the biscotti unique and over-the-top scrumptious.
Biscotti are twice-baked. Dough is formed into a log, then baked at a high temperature. Once it has mostly set, it's sliced and baked more at a much lower heat. The low heat gives biscotti their crunch. I didn't go for all-out hardness, and stopped while the cookies remained a bit tender.
Before their first bake:
First bake completed:
Sliced and re-baked:
These are undoubtedly among the yummiest things I've baked. If it hadn't been such a snowy day, I never would have discovered the deliciousness (and necessity!) of homemade biscotti!
