Easy Lemon-Almond Biscotti

These are becoming quite the staple in our house.

I baked a batch a couple of weeks ago for my husband and I to nibble on as we drove the 9 hour trip to visit our daughter at college. My daughter tasted them and loved them, so we left them all with her to enjoy (when your mom writes a food blog, it’s particularly hard to live on dorm food!) so I baked another batch for my husband and I to have as our at-home and his take-to-work cookie. Then, a few days ago, we got a call from our college girl in which, among other things, she reported that she was down to her last few biscotti (a scary situation-lol) so I baked another batch and shipped them out to her. Then, because I only allowed my husband to snitch one from the batch I was sending to her, I baked another batch for him today! And I am now realizing that we may have a small problem here…

These biscotti are addictive! There’s no denying it! Just the perfect blend of crunch and chewiness with the wonderful flavors of almond, lemon and vanilla.

I have another lemon biscotti recipe on the blog—it’s actually one of my sister’s specialties and I love, love, love them. They’re filled with nuts and cherries and lemon zest and juice and are a dense, solid sort of cookie. I will always want them. But right now I’m in serious like with these new ones.

They’re lighter. Almost cakey in consistency, especially if you do a short second bake.

And they come together in a snap—there’s no fussy sifting or need for a food processor or patient mixing. You simply mix the dry ingredients together, add the wet ones and nuts and shape into three logs.

Then you bake ‘em, let ‘em rest for a few minutes—

And easily and neatly slice them into cookies.

Also, the second bake takes only about 10 minutes, which means that in just a little over an hour, you can be dunking these beauties to your hearts delight!

Thinking ahead, a tin of these would make a great holiday gift! Though there’s absolutely no reason to wait until holiday time.

I’m munching one right now, for “research” you know, and I’m pretty sure that once you taste one of these, you’re going to find them becoming a staple in your house too!

Now, I know it’s only the middle of the week, but we’re going to be away for a few days, so I’m sort of shutting up shop here—shoot me an email of course or leave a comment if you have any cooking questions or thoughts—I promise to answer asap and in the meantime, have a wonderful rest of the week, be safe, eat something you love with someone you love (it can be yourself too!) and I’ll see you next week, hopefully reinvigorated and inspired to share lots of new fun fall food with you! (and yes, we’ll be taking a good supply of biscotti on our travels!!) xoxo

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Easy Lemon-Almond Biscotti

Makes about 3 dozen

Prep Time: 15 minutes; Bake Time: 45 minutes for the first bake, 15 minutes resting time and another 10-15 minutes for the second bake

Ingredients

• 1 ⅓ cups almonds

• 2 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for shaping the dough

• 1 ⅓ cups sugar

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• Zest of 1 lemon

• ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• 3 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Place the almonds on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for about 10 -12minutes, until they are very fragrant. Set aside to completely cool (you can do this way ahead). Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. If you have a stand mixer, place the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and lemon zest into the mixing bowl and attach the paddle. If you will be using a handheld mixer, place those ingredients into a large bowl and use the regular beaters. Mix the ingredients on low speed to combine.

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice, eggs and yolks and vanilla together. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and mix on medium but stop before all of the powdery mixture gets incorporated. You really don’t want to over mix these or the dough gets very sticky and hard to work with. Ad in the nuts and mix on low speed just to incorporate.

4. Lightly flour a board or your countertop and turn the dough and loose, crumbly bits out onto it. Flour your hands and knead the dough together into a rough rectangle, adding a bit more flour if the dough seems too sticky. Divide the dough into three equal pieces and roll into roughly 10-inch cylinders. Transfer each one to the prepared baking sheet placing them on the diagonal so they can fit and a couple of inches apart if possible ( I usually will re-flour my hands because the dough is a bit sticky).

5. Bake for exactly 45 minutes—the logs will spread a lot and look light golden brown. Remove from the oven and immediately turn it down to 300ºF. Let the logs rest for 10-15 minutes and then place them on a cutting board and use a serrated knife to cut them into 1-inch wide pieces. Transfer the biscotti to back to the baking sheet, cut side down. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. If you want these really crunchy do it for the longer baking time. I like them to be a little crunchy but still sort of spongy so I take them out at the 11 minute mark. They’re wonderful either way. Let the biscotti cool completely on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container at room temperature. These will last at least 2 weeks, maybe more, but it would take supreme willpower to go beyond that!

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from Home Cooking by Kate McDermott. I decreased the amount of sugar and added lemon juice.