This may or may not be a review of this recipe, because I changed it so much, but here goes. I used 8 ounces of butter and 4 ounces of good olive oil, left out the almonds, substituted almond extract for the anise and brushed the logs with beaten egg whites before baking. I also baked them longer the second time. I then made 4 separate logs with four different flavors. They were Cherry flavored dried cranberries, sweetened coconut flakes, walnuts, and cocoa powder (2 tsp)and chocolate chips. The cranberries were the best! This is a great base recipe -- and I will for sure make it again!
I am getting so many compliments on my biscotti! From Italian people too!! I've made this recipe twice. At first you'll think the dough is too sticky but the large amount of butter in the recipe makes it easy to work with. Once I got to the point of adding flour I changed to a dough hook on my stand mixer. Without that this could get tedious to mix. Excellent recipe - thank you!
I've been experimenting with biscotti recipes lately and this is by far our favorite! My husband took some to work and 2 people asked for the recipe. I put the dough into 2 large loaves - next time I'll make the loaves smaller as the sliced pieces were a bit large. Make this; you'll be happy! Also - I used Splenda for Baking for the sugar.
This is a surprisingly simple classic recipe for italian biscotti that any novice could make and any expert would be proud to produce. I like biscotti a little thicker than average so I cut them into one inch slices for the second baking. As I had two trays to cook I also raised the heat to 400 degrees and toasted them for 15 minutes so they were medium brown and very crunchy. Warm with coffee they were so good I baked a batch to send to my mom.
I had no almonds or anise extract. I only used the vanilla extract. One cup of the flour substatuted with whole wheat flour because I ran out of all purpose. When the dough became VERY sticky I kept my hands floured and pressed the rest together to finish mixing. Turning it onto a floured surface helped also then working it till easy to handle. I put parchment paper down on the cookie sheet(found in the grocery store next to the aluminum foil);these turned out perfect! They are plain with just the vanilla but I like to dip them in strong coffee so I don't mind. Next time I will buy the anise extract I am sure they will be even better! I will make these again!
ok, so what did I do wrong? Knead by hand?? HOW?? I added an additional cup of flour and it STILL isn't kneadable! all those ingredients wasted.
Thank you! This recipe was wonderful. My husband and everyone at work enjoyed it. I used almond extract instead of anise extract. I put 2 teaspoons almond extract and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. I also added 1 cup of chopped chocolate chips. I dipped the final cookies in chocolate. They were great!!!!!
A lovely subtle taste good texture easy to make and easy to change up by adding other flavours. Be aware that it takes longer to cook than indicated -- about five minutes pre-slicing and also post-slicing. I would suggest making five loaves rather than four as the smaller loaves cook more evenly and as easier to cut. And as someone else suggested: well-floured hands are the key to success! Anise extract is impossible to find where I live so I used 2 tsp of vanilla 1 tsp of almond and 2 tsp of orange flower essence. Also added grated orange rind and chocolate chunks to some loaves.
I made these for Christmas gifts and everyone requested the recipe. This was the best biscotti I've ever had. I used almond extract instead of anise and added craisins and walnuts and dipped the bottoms of the finished cookies in melted white almond bark.
