We always really luck out with our neighbours. Our first house was in a new, bedroom community north of Toronto and JT and I bought the smallest house snuggled in between two of the larger models in the subdivision. The neighbours to the west of us built our shared fence and didn’t even ask us for a penny for it; we built our fence to the east of us with the neighbour over a weekend culminating with a great big shared BBQ. When we moved back to the city, our northern neighbours held a BBQ for us and invited the entire street so that we could meet everyone; it was wonderful. We shared a driveway with these people and more often than not, when I couldn’t find JT (who should have been doing chores), he was sitting on the neighbour’s back porch having a beer with the neighbour.
When both our careers moved to the west side of Toronto, we made our third move; there were no parties or BBQs this time around, but there was always Biscotti! Our lovely neighbours on our north side made us delicious biscotti every Christmas. When I started living in our new reality, coffee breaks from the gruelling job search became imperative and I couldn’t help but crave ‘a little something’ with my java and that’s when I remembered our sweet neighbour’s almond biscotti. I’d never made biscotti before so it not only satisfied a craving but it also became a blog post! What more can I ask for?
Original recipe from Eyetalian Magazine.
Almond Biscotti (Biscotti Albani)
Makes about 2 dozen
Ingredients:
- 2 c unbleached All Purpose Flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 3/4 c almonds
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 but melted butter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 lightly beaten egg white
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and nuts in a medium-sized bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk the eggs together with the sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract and almond extract ; stir the wet ingredients into the flour/nut mixture and combine until a sticky dough forms.
- Transfer to a floured surface and form the dough into two logs about 30 cm or 12 inches long (as the dough bakes, it will increase in size, so unlike what I did, I would make the logs much thinner next time).
- Place the logs onto an ungreased baking sheet and brush with the beaten egg whites.
- Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for about 6 minutes and then slice into 1 cm or 0.5 inch thick diagonal slices. Return slices to the cookie sheet and bake again for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool.
- Serve with a beautiful espresso.
[…] espresso in the afternoon, I always feel like a little something to have with it, a biscotti (like this, this or this) or in most recent times, an amaretti cookie. Having just the right amount of ground […]
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[…] too! Isn’t that nice? As a thank you I made a batch of biscotti, a little different than this version I made last year to give them after all, I wouldn’t want to discourage such neighborly […]
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Lovely biscotti! It’s great to have good neighbours, on that front Jim and I have been truly blest over the years. All our neighbours have been friendly, but in a respectful way. On our left they were here when we moved to town back in 1979, to the right they changed a few times, but each one made a super neighbour. We missed the family with the 7 little kids the most. Their play always made me smile and I hated the quiet when they left.
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I have heard horror stories of neighbours so I am very grateful that ours have been as good as they have! I’m glad you had the same experience Zsuzsa.
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Eva, the blog won’t let me reply in the above thread so I’m commenting here.
Your recipe directions say to cut the biscotti 1 1/2 inch thick so I had hoped that cutting it 1 inch thick would give me 2 dozen pieces. Did you want to edit the post to reflect the half inch that you actually used?
My two logs were about 3 inches wide and each one was about 12 inches long.
I posted the florentine recipe I tried and a picture of the chocolate dipped biscotti I made. Unfortunately, I ran out of chocolate so the pictures are a bit … rough.
http://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/154691.html
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Sorry about the typo Maria, it should have been 1cm or .5″. I’ve corrected it. Hope they were tasty anyway.
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The biscotti were very good. Not overly sweet but flavorful with the almonds and extract and a hint of sweet/sour from the cranberries. Since it was my first time making the biscotti I tried to follow the instructions closely but an inch and a half seemed a bit thick which is why I cut it thinner. Next time, I’ll try cutting it only half an inch.
In the meantime, I have a tin full of biscotti and another container full of florentines looking for a good home. 🙂
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Thanks for not being too angry with my typo Maria. I’m glad you enjoyed them. I love them dipped into the chocolate, I bet that gets nice and melty in the hot coffee.
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Ok, explanation time – what’s a “bedroom community”… I must say I’ve never heard the expression before!
I will miss my neighbour when we move… she’s a little old lady who brings me cake and fruit and veg from her niece’s vegetable patch and you know – she’s kind of “old school” with her beliefs which don’t really align with mine, and kind of racist but nevertheless I will miss having a chat with her on her balcony over a cup of coffee.
The biscotti look amazing Eva – I’m in two minds about biscotti… on the one hand I love them, but on the other they always seem hard and a bit dry! I think I never had a good one to be honest… just had a bad experience once or twice and never gave them a second chance… I definitely never had a homemade one – something I should remedy!
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Hi Charles, a bedroom community is a subdivision close enough to a major city to where people commute to work. It’s usually a less expensive place to live. When we lived in our first house it was more like we only slept there, most of our activities were else where.
Thank you for your kind words about the biscotti, you should definitely make them, you will enjoy them with a coffee!
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Gorgeous biscotti, Eva! Good neighbours are very important. We also have wonderful, tolerant neighbours who seem to have similar lifestyles.
PS Sorry, I went away for one more week… not holidays really but very busy days..
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Hi Sissi, no worries at all. We have just come back ourselves from the cottage and sadly we have shut it down for the season. Now my life can get back to normal, hopefully a blogging routine!
I read your comment regarding the pickling and I will try it this year. My dear mother used to make the most delicious pickles that were crunchy and soft at the same time. She used a piece of bread on top to help pickle it. I believe Zsuzsa has made something similar. Sadly I am unable to comment on her blog with my phone, it seems to take my comment and then it catapults it into nowhere!
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We’ve lucked out with neighbors, too…they are some of my best friends 🙂 Your biscotti look perfect…they would be perfect hostess gifts around the holidays!
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Thanks Liz, great idea to make them for hostess gifts during the holidays.
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I’ve been very fortunate with neighbors, too, Eva. When I hear some of the horror stories friends have told, I thank my lucky stars. I really do like almond-flavored cookies and these biscotti sound fantastic. You crisped them perfectly and I can almost hear their crunch. 🙂 Like your friends, Mom & Zia made biscotti every Christmas. Mom made hers with pecans or walnuts and Zia’s were anise-flavored. At the end of the day, they traded half of what each made.
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Hi John, I’m glad you have good neighbour stories too, I just couldn’t imagine living next door to some of those nasties we’ve both heard about.
I have a bottle of anise-flavour, perhaps the next batch will include that lovely flavour! It’s a great idea to trade off half, I just need to find someone to do it with.
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Oh, these crunchy almond biskottis look soo good!
I’m sitting here with a lovely macchiato but it would be even better with one of your gorgeous biscottis:)
Seems that you were really fortunate with such nice neighbours.
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Thank you for leaving a comment on my humble blog. I love your story about the cook book; you must live in a very old home. Crème brûlée is indeed a wonderful and simple dessert, easily flavoured. My recipe is not so cream laden and I find it rather lovely even without.
We often fly into Vienna for a night on our way to visit my family in Budapest (a few hours away). It’s easy now that the boarders aren’t there.
BTW I am unable to comment on your blog from my iPhone, which is where I do ALL my commenting.
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My little lonely cup of tea needs one of your delicious and crunchy almond biscotti cookies. I am sure with one of these little delights in hand the job search will go brilliantly. Take Care, BAM
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Thanks so much Bam, the biscotti certainly makes it much tastier!
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You are so lucky to have awesome neighbours! This biscotti looks like my ultimate study snack 😀
Cheers
CCU
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Thanks CCU, it’s not that easy to stop at one.
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They look like you are a professional biscotti baker! I have to try these.
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Thank you very much and welcome to my blog Sanja.
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OMG, I could devour half a dozen of those right now! They look and sound delicious. I love having good neighbours. Sounds like you are a great neighbour too xo
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Thanks so much Lizzy, we’ve been very fortunate. I’d gladly share the Tim of these biscotti with you.
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I just love the look of your biscotti Eva — rustic perfection. I haven’t made biscotti in a couple years. Can hardly wait to get settled in a real kitchen and roll up my sleeves 🙂 Love the touch of lemon with the almond…wish I had one right now!
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Thanks so much Kelly, I totally feel for you in your temporary kitchen. I know if be thinking I have this tool or that pan only to discover they are still packed away! What’s fun about times like these is that one becomes inventive and I’m pretty sure your family hadn’t even noticed a skipped beat with your gourmet cooking! You rock my friend!
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Your biscotti looks really good, Eva. It sounds like you have known some wonderful neighbours over the years xx
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Thanks so much Charlie, we have been very fortunate indeed.
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I’ll take two, please! Love biscotti, and my, what good fortune you’ve had with your neighbors. How lovely!
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Thanks so much Betsy, we are indeed very fortunate! I’d love to share a couple with you.
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I like the look of biscotti but the actuality of having to dip a rock hard biscuit into a hot beverage before you can crunch through it has always kept me from making some or even buying them from the Italian bakery.
Still, I think I should make biscotti at least once in my life. I even have ALL the ingredients in the house and I’ve been looking for a way to use up the rest of the whole almonds that I blanched in order to make the Chinese style cookies from Charlie’s almond biscuit recipe. Did you ever try it, by the way? I know you had commented that you were going to give them a go.
http://hotlyspiced.com/almond-biscuits-and-starting-school/#sthash.ffiJwqe2.dpuf
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Thank you Maria, I think you would enjoy biscotti, it’s just such a lovely little treat with a demitasse of espresso or a cup of coffee. I made another recipe that did not have melted butter but it’s really rock hard so I would recommend that you choose a recipe with melted butter so that when it bakes up the second time, you don’t entirely need the hot cup to dip into and it won’t break your teeth.
No, I completely forgot about those lovely cookies Charlie made, I have so many things I want to try to make…I’m going to try to find a recipe of almond cookie without flour so that I can take it to my brothers next weekend.
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I made your recipe (replaced 1/4 cup of almonds with dried cranberries) and they were very good. The biscotti only ended up about 2 1/2 inches long and I had a bit of trouble getting 2 dozen cookies even though I cut them 1 inch thick. I gobbled up the stubby little ends and some broken pieces and hope to dip some of the nicer slices in dark chocolate tomorrow when I make a batch of florentines which I’ll coat with chocolate as well.
I wonder if I can turn the recipe above into a chocolate version just by replacing some of the flour and still keeping in the butter rather than trying the no-butter once you posted more recently. 🙂
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Thanks for letting me know Maria, glad the turned out. I cut mine about 1/2″ thick so maybe that’s the difference. You may need to increase the sugar if you are using unsweetened cocoa, but your idea sound lovely. I was hoping to find dried cherries but wasn’t able to, your cranberry substitution sounds lovely. And dipping them into chocolate sounds delicious. I’d love to see your Florentines.
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What amazing neighbours! Mine are such a mixed bag-some are great, some are not 😛
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I know what you mean Lorraine; I once worked with a freelancer who, after he shovelled the snow off his walkway, his stupid neighbour shovelled snow back on!
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Those are great looking biscottis 🙂 Aren’t they the best ever!! Nothing like munching on a great cake rusk with some soothing tea.
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Thanks Minnie, it really makes a coffee experience.
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I am the fan of twice baked cookies. These look fantastic!
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Thanks Angie, we were baking biscotti at the same time across the globe from one another!
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Biscottis are just the best biscuits ever. I could eat a tray of them now.
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Hi David, they are rather moreish aren’t they?
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I’ll take 2 with a nice hot cup of coffee please. Biscottii is one of my favorite cookies, just bought a container of Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti (too lazy to make them myself).
You always have wonderful neighbours because you are a wonderful neighbour.
Hope your job search brings good result soon..
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Oh Norma, you make me blush, thank you so much for your generous words. Yes, I would love to share a couple of biscuits with you.
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They look coffee-shop professional – perfectly browned! I’m also a huge fan of almond flavor, especially mixed with orange. Biscotti can be fun to play with, i.e you can toss in dried cranberries, chocolate chips, etc.
🙂
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Thanks Jen, I have experimented with another recipe and we’re almost through that batch and I just bought the dried cranberries…lots more experimentation to come.
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