Best Biscotti
By: Oriana
Published: Sunday, May 30, 2010 - 6:59am

Ingredients




4 eggs
2 tablespoons liqueur (brandy, amaretto, etc)
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Preparation

1 Wisk together eggs, liqueur and vanilla. 2 Sift together, flour, baking powder and salt. 3 In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Gradually beat in egg 4 Mixture until thoroughly combined.  Stir in flour mixture.  Divide into 3 or 4 equal 5 Amounts. 6 Add flavourings to each individual dough, enough that there are lots of chunks but not so much that the dough can’t hold together.  (Between ¾ cup and 1 cup total per dough if divided in four pieces 1-1/3 cups if divided into three pieces.) 7 On two parchment-lined baking sheets, shape into 12 by 1-1/2 inch logs for 4 pieces, or 16 x 1-1/2 inch logs for 3 pieces. 8 Bake in a preheated 325 F. oven for 30 minutes or until firm and golden.  Let cool on baking sheet 15 minutes; transfer to a cutting board. 9 Cut diagonally into ½ inch thick slices using a serrated knife.  Lay cookies flat in baking sheets; bake about 25 minutes longer or until golden brown and crisp, turning once during baking. 10 Makes about 5 dozen biscotti. 11 Suggested flavours for additions: 12 Pistachio, dried cranberries or cherries, white chocolate and orange zest. 13 Orange zest, cinnamon, dried cranberries and toasted pecans. 14 Almonds, white and dark chocolate chunks or chips. 15 Orange zest, almonds or pecans, and cranberries

About


Many years ago on CityLine - Canada's longest running lifestyle show - Sandra Pittana, the fashion expert who is a regular guest on the show, deviated from the norm of fashionista and from her kitchen showed how she made her favourite recipe for biscotti. This particular recipe yields quite of lot of cookies so the dough can be divided into two or three bowls to which you can add different ingredients such as almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, cranberries, dried cherries, chocolate chips or any combination thereof, and end up with three different flavoured biscotti. Of course I knew that I would try this recipe, and although I’d been making biscotti for a while, after trying these any prior recipe became history and this one became my favourite.