A tale of two biscottis

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What do you give to someone who has everything?  Perhaps your time, attention and effort?  Biscottis fit the bill exactly.  Now, I used to be the biscotti making queen in my MS days in UT Austin;  I had modified a recipe found in a cook book (this was way before food blogs became so prolific online), adding lemon and orange zests, fine semolina etc... But unfortunately, I have not written down the recipe anywhere so I have to start from scratch.  I went to joy of baking website and took their best biscotti recipe and ran into trouble immediately.  The batter wouldn't come together when I did everything described.  I had to rework the recipe to finally get something in the oven.  here is my modified recipe.

  1. 1 cup (145 grams) mixed nuts, I used almonds, cashews and walnuts
  2. 1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking powder
  3. 1/8 teaspoon salt
  4. 2 cups (260 grams) organic chapathi flour
  5. 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
  6. 4 brown eggs (recipe called for 3)
  7. 1/2 cup milk (recipe didnt call for any)
  8. 1 tsp crushed anise seed (very light in flavour, would increase to 1 tbspoon next time)
  9. 1/2 tsp ginger powder (very light in flavour, would increase to 1 tspoon next time)
  • Preheat the oven to 150 deg C
  • Toast nuts for 8 to 10 minutes and chop
  • Beat eggs together lightly along with the milk
  • Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar together
  • Slowly start adding the liquids, halfway through the liquids, mix in the nuts and spices.
  • When the batter finally gathers into a ball, divide in 2
  • Shape each half into a log 1 cm high and about 6 cm wide
  • Bake in a buttered pan for 30 - 40 minutes until it feels firm to the touch
  • Cool in pan for 10 minutes
  • Slice with a serrated knife, 1 cm wide
  • Bake cut side up for 10 minutes
  • Turn over and bake for another 10 minutes or more until the biscotti looks dry
  • Cool and store in a airtight tin.
I  got about 40 biscottis from this recipe but I found some issues  - too sweet, somewhat dense, somewhat dry, no crust to speak of and too nutty, .  The biscotti of my memory was richer so it is back to the mixing bowls again.




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