BISCOTTI…The Great Italian Cookie!

Deeba @ PAB

16 years ago

“You’ll always make good food from great ingredients,but you will never make great food from bad ingredients.”
Michael Chiarrello

BISCOTTI in 2 TONES!!

Here’s what I baked yesterday…BISCOTTI. It’s been on my mind for really long ever since I’ve been haunted by a picture posted on Group Recipes.This particular biscotti recipe is from Rogers page on Group Recipes which I have adapted to suit the ingredients I had available. The fact that the recipe uses olive oil & not butter won me over!! The recipe is a wee bit fiddly as it uses no butter which makes the dough quite sticky and squishy; but don’t let this put you off. I guess that’s the idea…otherwise how would we get such a great crisp cookie, low on fat! The aroma it fills the house with is heavenly. I was literally eating the crumbs off the counter while slicing it up! Suggest you try it when the kids are away…

The name biscotti is derived from ‘bis’ meaning twice in Italian and ‘cotto‘ meaning baked or cooked. Biscotti is said to have originated during Columbus’s time , & because of their long storage ability they were an ideal food for sailors, soldiers, and fisherman. Most European countries have adopted their own version of biscotti: English – rusks, French – biscotte and croquets de carcassonne, Germans – zwieback, Greeks – biskota and paxemadia, Jewish – mandelbrot, and Russians – sukhariki.

Ingredients:

Granulated sugar – 2/3 cup
Olive Oil – ¼ cup (or canola oil;I used olive)
Eggs – 2
Vanilla extract – 2 tsp
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Salt -1/8 tsp
Flour – 1 3/4 cups
Unsalted pistachios – 1/2 cup / coarsely chopped
Dried currants – 1/2 cup (original post has dried cranberries)
Chocolate chips – ½ cup
Walnuts – ½ cup/choppedMethod:

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat sheets.
Sift the flour + salt + baking powder
Beat the olive oil with the sugar.
Add the vanilla extract + eggs & beat well.
Stir in the flour mix. Divide it into 2 bowls.
Gently turn the pistachios + currants into one half; and chocolate chips + walnuts into the other.
Transfer the dough to your parchment lined baking sheet and form into a log, about 12” X 3 ½”. The dough is very sticky, so you may have to dampen your hands to form the log.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until firm to the touch & light golden brown. ( I over baked it in my general excitement).
Remove from oven and cool for about 10 minutes.
Transfer the log gently to a cutting board and cut diagonally into 2 cm slices with a sharp serrated knife.
Reduce oven temperature to 135 degrees C. Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes, turn slices over, and bake for another 8 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.
Makes about 20 – 24 biscotti

Note: If you are doing just the pistachio version, increase the pistachios to 1 1/2 cups; the currants remain at 1/2 cup & leave the chocolate chips & walnuts out. I just tried to get a bit of variety.

The Italian Cookie for ‘Coffee Lovers’ or ‘Wine Dunkers‘!

Biscotti have a long shelf life & make wonderful gifts. Stack them up & tie them together with a pretty ribbon; put them in a jar; or else fill them up in a lovely mug! If you use pistachios and dried red cranberries, these are all ready and dressed up for Christmas!

This is so festive, its gotta be a under the tree. So I’m sending this one as well off for Zlamushka’s ‘Spoonful of Christmas’.

Just found another Christmas event at Susan’s ‘Food Blogga’ which invites posts for Christmas cookies until 17th December…which gives people a chance to make them well before Christmas. Swell idea…so this one goes off to Food Blogga as well!! Can you hear the bells a-ringin’?

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