Walnut Biscotti

Biscotti is a comfort food to me in a meditation kind of way.  When I eat it, I pay complete attention to it - the scent and flavor, the texture before and after dipping it into my coffee, the lovely brown color.  When I am eating biscotti there is nothing more important in that moment to be doing.  It's somehow Peace in food form.

Hiding biscotti under a layer of chocolate seems like a waste, so there is no chocolate in this recipe.  The delicate flavors shine through and mingle with the coffee aroma and the texture after a quick dunk is perfection.  This biscotti is small and simple, not too sweet, and seems very popular with those who I gave samples to.  Making more is certainly not a bad way to spend a weekend morning!

I did start with a recipe (from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book) but it's easily open to interpretation and adjustment so I ended up using this as a general guideline.

First, toast the walnuts.  This brings out the best flavor in the nuts and makes the kitchen smell delicious.  I set the butter on a dish on top of the stove so the oven heat softens it enough for the mixing step.  A note about the quantity: I am a person who doubles things like nuts and chocolate chips.  If you do this too, don't do it for this recipe, more than 1 cup of nuts makes the dough a bit unwieldy and it won't hold together right.

Toasted walnuts

 Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small or medium bowl.  Save the large bowl for the next step.  This is something I've learned about baking, it seems like the flour is the biggest ingredient and should go into the biggest bowl, but it usually gets mixed into the wet ingredients.

Crack the eggs into separate small containers and measure the vanilla into one of them.  This makes it easy to keep the electric mixer on and just pour in the ingredients as needed instead of stopping for each addition.  

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer on medium speed 3 to 6 minutes until it's well mixed - it will appear light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract until combined, about 30 seconds.  It looks a bit like frosting at this point.

Mixed wet ingredients

Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. I switch to a mixing spoon after the first half of the flour so it doesn't tax the mixer motor too much.  Stir in the walnuts and zest until just incorporated.  Separate the dough into two balls of approximately equal size, one for each loaf. 

Dough ready to be formed into loaves

Balls of walnut biscotti dough

Press the dough into two 13- by 2-inch loaves on a large counter or cutting board and move to the prepared baking sheet, spaced about 3 inches apart.  Flatten slightly if you want the long thin biscotti shapes, or leave them more rounded on top for a fatter taller cookie.  The dough is very sticky at this point so it's better to use a surface that isn't parchment paper for forming the loaves; it's ok if it sticks once you put it onto the paper for baking, it doesn't stick at the end.  I did mine with square-ish shapes and they puffed up nicely.

Uncooked biscotti loaves

Bake the loaves until golden and just beginning to crack at the top, about 35 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking.

Walnut biscotti loaves after first baking

Let the loaves cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 325°F.

Almost done!  When cool enough to handle, transfer the loaves to a cutting board and slice each on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices with a serrated knife. They are a bit fragile at this point so take your time.  Use a gentle sawing motion to keep crumbs to a minimum and preserve the shape of the biscotti.  The diagonal is what makes them the right shape.  Of course the best part of this shape is the two resulting corner pieces of each loaf which are the cook's prerogative to enjoy.

Slicing biscotti at a diagonal - look at that delicious corner!

Lay the slices about 1/2-inch apart on the baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes, turning the slices over halfway through the baking. I found this easily done by using chopsticks.  Tip: face them all the same direction on the cookie sheet (such as all the tops to the left) so when it comes time to turn them over it's easy to see which have been turned.

Transfer the biscotti to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.  Okay who am I kidding, these are delicious warm and didn't even see my cooling rack.  :)  Enjoy!  I suggest making a double batch for sharing.  Store in an airtight container to keep them crunchy.

Walnut Biscotti
INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1 Tbsp dried orange zest (use fresh if available)


1. Toast walnuts: Heat oven to 375.  Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Spread chopped nuts on the cookie sheet then bake for 5 to 10 minutes.  Watch them closely and take them out as soon as they smell toasted, they can burn very quickly.

2. Lower the oven temp to 350.  Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper (can use the same one once it cools).

3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.

4. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer on medium speed 3 to 6 minutes until it's well mixed - it will appear light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract until combined, about 30 seconds.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Switch to a mixing spoon and mix in the walnuts and zest until just incorporated.

6.  Press the dough into two 13- by 2-inch loaves on a large counter or cutting board and move to the prepared baking sheet, spaced about 3 inches apart. Bake the loaves until golden and just beginning to crack at the top, about 35 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking.

7. Let the loaves cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 325°F.

8. When cool enough to handle, transfer the loaves to a cutting board and slice each on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices with a serrated knife. Lay the slices about 1/2-inch apart on the baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes, flipping the slices over halfway through the baking. Transfer the biscotti to a wire rack to cool.  Store in an airtight container to keep them crunchy.