Almond Biscotti

Take me to a coffee shop, offer me a cake and I will hands down bypass the cake offer and have biscotti. I actually have a very vivid memory of this. In the middle of a wedding in October going to a costa with my family (it’s a long story), they all sat down with a muffin or piece of cake and there was me with my biscotti.

Biscuits aren’t my favourite thing which is a little odd because I’m all about that crunchy food but they’re always a little too sweet or too hard or bland or get stuck in your teeth, and I am in no way a dunker, I DO NOT GET THAT! Is that just an English thing? A world wide thing? If you do that I don't think I'm living in the same universe as you.

Can I also mention THIS WAS NOT PLANNED!
Okay so I knew it was biscuit week on the great British bake off but it was a crazy coincidence that they were baking the same thing, although now mine seems awfully plain and boring. I’ve never made biscotti before and I do love the classic flavour and what’s a little ridiculous is I went through all my cook books and not one of them had a basic almond biscotti recipe. Now that I’ve finally made it, which might I say I found the process rather enjoyable, now I just want to make all the biscotti in all the flavours. I apologise now if that follows.

You will need
150g blanched whole almonds
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
260g all-purpose flour
150g granulated white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place the almonds on a baking tray and cook for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant
Reduce the oven temperature to 150C and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
In a small bowl lightly beat the eggs, vanilla and almond extract together then set aside. In another bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix until blended.
Gradually add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix until a dough forms, adding the almonds about halfway through.
On a lightly floured surface roll the dough into a log about 14 inches/35cm long and 3-4 inches/8-10cm wide. Transfer to the baking tray and bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Cut into slices about 1/2 inch thick diagonally and place back on the baking tray. Bake again for another 10-15 minutes on each side until firm.


My computer keeps trying to correct biscotti to Scottish...yep.