APRICOT-ALMOND BISCOTTI

I've been wanting to use a recipe that's made its rounds on the internet, "Double Almond Biscotti." It was developed by Pam Simmons' test kitchen in response to consumer requests and it became a favorite in her office. But, alas, when I looked in my cupboard, I came up short. I had a half can of almond paste in the fridge, and the recipe called for 7 oz.; 4 egg whites were needed, and my eggs were getting low; and I didn't have any slivered almonds. I was too lazy to make a run to the store. And besides, when am I ever going to use up these leftovers I have? I decided to forge ahead and make modifications. The result was Apricot-Almond Biscotti, and they're pretty good. They have a distinct almond flavor and the apricots blend nicely with the almonds.
Apricot-Almond Biscotti
INGREDIENTS: 4 oz. almond paste
1-3/4 cups flour (I used 1 cup all-purpose and 3/4 cup whole wheat)
1/2 cup sugar (I used 1 Tbsp. Stevia in place of the sugar)
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1/2 cup whole almonds, toasted
1/2 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped

Glaze: 1/2 cup white chocolate (from chips or bar)
1 Tbsp. butter

DIRECTIONS: Heat oven to 325F with oven rack in center. Take 2 large cookie sheets and stack one inside the other (the double sheets help prevent biscotti from burning). Line top cookie sheet with parchment paper, or lightly grease. If needed, grate almond paste on large-hole side of a box grater. (My almond paste was soft, so I didn't need to grate it.)

Fit a 7-cup or larger food processor with a metal blade. Add almond paste, flour, sugar, butter baking powder and salt. Pulse until mixture has texture of small crumbs. Add eggs, flavorings and nuts and pulse a few times, then add apricots and pulse till apricots are chopped and dough is well mixed.

Transfer dough by large spoonfuls onto baking sheet, making two "logs," approx. 2" x 10" each, 3" apart. Flatten the logs gently with your hands until they are 1/2 to 3/4" thick. Bake 35 minutes, or until golden, set and starting to crack open. Transfer double cookie sheets, with biscotti still on them, to wire rack to cool (about 1-1/2 hours).

When completely cool, slice into 3/4" pieces, on a diagonal or straight, as you prefer. I cut mine straight this time. Use a serrated knife. Return the pieces to the doubled cookie sheet, cut side down. You can put them right next to each other this time. Bake for 25 minutes at 325F, or until slightly golden. (For softer textured biscotti bake 2-3 minutes less; for drier biscotti bake 2-3 minutes more.) Cool completely. These freeze well. Yield: 32 medium sized biscotti

If desired, dip one end of biscotti in melted chocoate mixed with butter. Here's a photo of the dough ready to go in the oven:

Here's a photo of the baked biscotti, before they are cut:

BISCOTTI WITH DRIED CHERRIES, CHOCOLATE AND ALMONDS

This is Ellie Krieger's recipe, and it's posted on http://www.foodnetwork.com/. I think there is an error in the flour amounts. 2-1/2 cups of flour was too much. Even though the cookies taste great, the dough wasn't sticky enough for a biscotti. So I've adjusted the flour amounts to 2-1/4 cups total, as other similar biscotti recipes have this amount. (Be sure you lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cup before you level it off.) I took 1/4 cup of the flour and mixed it with the cherries, chocolate and nuts. This makes it easier to mix them -- they don't clump together with the flour coating them. Ellie uses olive oil in her recipe, but I used canola oil. The olive oil that I buy has a strong flavor. It's first cold pressed extra-virgin. To use a lighter oil negates the benefits of olive oil, so I went with canola oil which really has no great benefit either, except that it doesn't solidify in your arteries. You can choose which oil you want to use. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly, and it's a pretty good one. Biscotti are so easy to make and most people really like them. Because of the oil in the recipe, these are lightly crunchy, not break-your-teeth crunchy, and the flavors blend nicely. Try this recipe; I think you'll agree it's a keeper.

Biscotti with Dried Cherries, Chocolate and Almond

INGREDIENTS: 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided use
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (I used King Arthur whole wheat flour)
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. grated orange zest
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup canola, vegetable or olive oil
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
1/2 cup toasted and chopped almonds
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate (I used 1/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips and 1/4 cup chopped Hershey's milk chocolate bar)
For the Dipping: 1/2 cup semi-sweet or milk chocolate + 1 Tbsp. half and half, cream or milk)

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup of each of the flours, baking powder, salt and orange zest; set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the cherries, almonds and chocolate with the remaining flour and mix till cherries are well coated and not clumping together; set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla until well combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 portions, mixing the flour in after each addition. Stir in the cherries, almonds and chocolate and mix till just combined. (I did this in my KitchenAid, but I have a 450-watt motor. If your motor is not up to this, then fold in the last ingredients by hand.) Ellie says to knead the dough, form it into a 3" x 10" log and put it on the baking sheet. I like to spoon large blobs of dough directly onto the cookie sheet and then with wet hands (if needed), shape the dough into a log. You pick which works best for you. Bake for 25 minutes. Carefully transfer to a wire rack to completely cool. (I used two spatulas to lift the log onto a wire rack.) The biscotti must be completely cooled before you slice it; otherwise, it will crumble into pieces. When it is completely cool, slice 1/2" diagonal slices (or cut straight down if you prefer). Arrange the slices cut side down on the baking sheet (use the same one, no washing needed) and bake at 325F for 10-12 minutes; turn the cookies over and bake for 10-12 minutes more, or till golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool again. These cookies are great as is. If you want to take them over the top, add the chocolate dip or glaze. (Ellie's recipe does not include any chocolate dip or glaze.)

If chocolate dip is desired, heat the chocolate and half and half in a small heat-proof dish over simmering, not boiling, water, stirring till liquid state is obtained. (You can also heat the chocolate in the microwave, but be careful because it does burn easily.) Add more half and half if needed to keep the chocolate thin and liquiddy. Dip one end of each biscotti in the liquid chocolate, or drizzle over the biscotti. Ellie says this recipes gives 12 biscotti, but I got more like 20. I must have cut them thinner.

CAPPUCCINO WALNUT BISCOTTI

For this recipe, I used a Williams-Sonoma base recipe and changed ingredients to get the flavors I wanted. The base recipe is "Almond Lemon and Anise Biscotti." The recipe calls for oil, but I used melted butter instead. I increased the flour slightly to allow for the 2 Tbsp. Kahlua I added; and I increased the sugar slightly to allow for the bitter coffee powder I added. I thought a dip with chocolate would be a nice finishing touch. These biscotti are easy to make and very delicious. They're crisp and crunchy, not hard, and the butter makes then tender at the same time.

Capuccino Walnut Biscotti
INGREDIENTS: 2/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup unsalted butter (you may substitute oil if you like)
2 Tbsp. coffee brandy, such as Kahlua
3 Tbsp. instant coffee granules (decaf is ok--or use 1-1/2 Tbsp. Espresso if
you like)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour, unbleached
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1-1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS: Have all ingredients at room temperature before starting. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Toast walnuts in pie plate or small baking pan for about 10 minutes, or till just lightly toasted and starting to give off an aroma. Cool. In small glass bowl, heat butter on medium in microwave for about 1 minute, or til almost melted. It will continue to melt after you remove it from microwave. In small cup, dissolve coffee granules in coffee brandy. In medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In large workbowl of stand mixer with paddle attachment combine the eggs, sugar, butter, coffee mixture and vanilla. Beat till fluffy, scraping bottom and sides as needed. Add the flour mixture and stir till a dough forms. Do not overbeat at this point. Stir in the chips and nuts. Take the dough by large spoonfuls and drop it onto the parchment, as shown below:



It looks pretty sloppy, doesn't it? Don't worry. Run your hands under cold water and with wet hands, shape the blobs of dough into a log, as below:
I made three logs. The width of the logs is basically going to be the length of your cookies, so make the logs as wide as you want your cookies long. They will spread a little, so account for that. I wish I had done 2 logs, wider, but what I ended up with is a lot of small cookies -- which is ok, but for dunking, the longer cookies are better.
Bake the biscotti 25-30 minutes at 350, or till firm to the touch and starting to crack on the tops. See the cracks below?
Let the biscotti cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then carefully, very carefully transfer them to a cooling rack where they should completely cool -- at least 1 hour. (Problems with shredding and breaking come from trying to cut warm biscotti.) After they are completely cooled, cut them in slices about 1/2" thick, or to your preference. Arrange the slices, cut side down, onto the same baking sheet, with or without the parchment. Bake at 325 degrees F. for 10 minutes each side, or till crisp and slightly browned. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Optional chocolate dip: Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Heat about 8 oz. chocolate chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark) with 1 Tbsp. fat-free Half and Half, or heavy cream, or regular Half and Half) and 2 tsp. butter. You can do this in the microwave, or in a Pyrex cup in a pot of hot water. (I prefer doing it on the stove because I do as little in the microwave as possible. If you research microwaves and the dangers, you will agree with me. Microwaves completely destroy any food value and make molecular changes to whatever you heat in them. In my thinking, they are very scary things that we all seem to overuse.) Any way, you pick your method for heating the chocolate, but be careful because chocolate doesn't like high heat. Stir it to get it smooth. If it's too thick and grainy, just add some more liquid and stir, stir, stir. When you get the chocolate the way you want it, dip your biscotti into it, concentrating more on the one side -- if you put it all around, you'll have trouble with it sticking to everything. Just concentrate on the top and sides and leave the bottom out of it as much as possible. Lay the dipped biscotti onto the wax paper. When sheet is filled up, put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes to harden the chocolate quickly. Remove from freezer and store the way you want -- or eat them up. They're pretty darned good.

GINGER ALMOND BISCOTTI

--- This recipe is from Gourmet Magazine, July 1999. I added the white chocolate dip and reduced the ginger by 1/2 teaspoon. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. It's an easy recipe and quite delicious. The biscotti are low fat, crunchy and tasty. (These are not a tender cookie because there is no fat in the recipe to make them tender. They are a typical crunchy biscotti.) The powdered ginger and the crystallized ginger together make a very flavorful cookie. Here is the crystallized ginger that I used. I bought it at our local Harris Teeter for $2.99, quite a bargain! I only used half the container for this recipe.

A word about the white chocolate (if you decide to use the dip): Buy a good-quality white chocolate, one that lists cocoa butter as a main ingredient.  If you've never liked white chocolate, it could be that you've never tasted white chocolate made with cocoa butter.

Ginger Almond Biscotti
INGREDIENTS: 3/4 cup whole almonds with skins
1/2 cup crystallized ginger
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
6 oz. white chocolate chips
2 tsp. fat free half and half, or heavy cream, or milk

DIRECTIONS: Have all ingredients at room temperature before starting. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. In a shallow baking pan, toast almonds in middle of oven about 10 minutes, or till lightly toasted. (I used the same pan that I baked the biscotti in for this.) Cool nuts and very coarsely chop. Finely chop the crystallized ginger.


My Henckel Santoku knife made short work of these chores. When you chop the nuts, do it carefully. If the knife hits the nut just so, it will fly across the room.

Spray a 1-1/2 quart Pyrex loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Line the pan with wax paper that hangs over the sides.

Into a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, ground ginger, salt and baking soda. In the workbowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment beat together the whole egg, egg white and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture just till combined. Stir in almonds and crystallized ginger. This mixture will be very very sticky. You don't want to try and knead it or do anything with it except put it into the pan. Just drop it in with your spatula in globs and roughly smooth it out but don't worry about it being perfect, because it will spread when it bakes. Bake in the middle of the oven until pale golden, about 45 minutes. This is what it will look like when it comes out of the oven:
Turn it upside down and pull off the wax paper. Turn it right side up and let it cool on the rack for at least an hour, or till thoroughly cooled.
Remove the loaf to a cutting board and, using a sharp knife (I used by Henckel bread knife), cut slices crosswise about 1/4" thick.

The biscotti is still just a bit moist at this point and needs to be dried out. It tastes quite good as is, but you know biscotti is supposed to be dry. If you like it like this, then don't go any further with it, but I went the second step. Put the cut biscotti on a baking sheet and bake in middle of oven at 325 degrees F. about 10 minutes, then turn biscotti over and bake 10 minutes more or until golden brown and crisp. Cool biscotti on rack. You do not need to dip the biscotti, but the white chocolate is very good with them.

For the white chocolate dip, melt 6 oz. white chocolate chips in pyrex bowl over simmering water till melted and thin enough to dip. I added 2 tsp. fat free half and half and 1 tsp. butter. If the white chocolate looks grainy and thick, just add some more half and half, cream or milk and stir till smooth. Dip the biscotti, one at a time, in the melted chocolate mixture, then lay them on a cookie sheet that has been lined with wax paper. When all have been dipped, place the sheet in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to quickly harden the chocolate, then remove and store as desired. I freeze all my cookies because they keep better, but you can also store biscotti in an airtight container at cool room temperature for about 2 weeks.