Biscotti: Authentic Tuscan

By fsilver4

While in Poppi, Italy, I met the most wonderful Chef, Chef Laura and we swapped recipes. Americans eat biscotti in coffee shops, but it's not really biscotti. This is real authentic Tuscan biscotti recipe and amazingly the orange zest in this recipe almost seems to create a fresh almond flavor. I've converted the recipe to American standards. The dough is very wet, so use a little extra flour for handling.

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• zest of a whole large orange
• 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 stick of room temperature butter
• 3 eggs/ room temperature
• 2 egg yolks/ room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups of whole almonds

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven 350*

In a mixing bowl mix sugar and butter together, then add the eggs and yolks. Add almonds and the orange zest. Mix well. Sieve the flour with the baking powder and incorporate little by little into the egg and almond mixture. Mix well with spatula, you need a fairly stiff dough, so add a llittle extra flour if necessary. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, roll out the dough into 2 long loaves and leave enough space between each log for baking.

Bake in oven for about 15 minutes. Remove and leave to coool for 10 minutes. Lift the loaves on to a chopping board and slice them at an angle with a sharp knife into strips. Return the biscuits to the hot oven for another 10 minutes. Cool completely before storing in container or biscotti jar.