I am a big fan of almonds. I really love almond, citrus, and passion fruit, and often choose desserts with those flavors over chocolate if I’m eating out. Blasphemous, I know, but I’m trying to keep it honest here. Much to my delight, these biscotti knock it out of the park!
Gretchen of Canela & Comino chose, Lenox Almond Biscotti on page 141-143 of Dorie’s book (or you can check out Gretchen’s delightful website, as well). I was mightily relieved to have an easy recipe to pull together; it seems like the past few months, my life has been a busy blur, and this week was no exception.
Biscotti are wonderfully easy to bake – you just form the loaf, bake, cool, slice, and bake again. None of the in-and-out of the oven routine that you have to go through with drop cookies. I used Kerrygold butter, and refrigerated the dough logs before baking them to minimize spreading, which a lot of other folks complained about. Then I sliced the logs on an angle to create longer biscotti. This recipe included some cornmeal, which I couldn’t taste but which gave the cookies a delightful crunch. The almond flavor was perfect: strong, but not overwhelming. These join my list of favorite Dorie recipes, and I see myself making them again, maybe dipped in a bit of chocolate. Hey, I didn’t say I don’t like chocolate – I love it, it’s just that I often prefer a few other flavors over it. And a little chocolate with these would be awesome!
Baking Tip: Cornmeal is highly perishable, and you should store it in the freezer or it will go rancid very quickly. Before you bake with it, always give it a sniff test: it should smell “corny,” but not sour or rancid. If it smells bad, toss it, because it will make the entire baked good taste pretty nasty.
To see how everyone else faired with the biscotti, head on over to TWD to see the blogroll. Next week: Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp has chosen Pumpkin Muffins.
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28 users responded in this post
i’m with you: these are on my list of favorite dorie cookies. maybe near the very top of that list, too! your biscotti look crunchy and delicious….
Wonderful.
I love almonds, but not almond flavoring.
Very nice indeed!
Very nice. Dipping them in chocolate would be wonderful.
thanks for the corn meal tip… mine was actually expired, but it still tasted ok 😉 hehe. glad you liked the biscotti!
Great cornmeal tip. Like chocolate chic, I love almonds but not so hip on almond flavoring. Your cookies look heavenly.
It’s a great idea to chill the dough before baking! Thanks for the tip, I’ll do this next time. 🙂
Great tip about the cornmeal. I store the wheat germ and bran in the freezer, I should stick the cornmeal in there too.
The biscotti looks great! I was afraid the almond extract would be too overpowering but it did taste great.
Lovely biscotti. As you like almond and citrus, you could try these with the grated rind of two lemons or one orange rubbed into the sugar as Dorie suggested (I made Lemon Almond biscotti that way)
I can’t remember what post but you had recommended putting cornmeal in the freezer before and I totally followed your tip last time so my cornmeal was still fresh as when I opened it. Definitely a great tip! I’ll have to remember your tip about chilling the dough before baking too. I learn so many good tips from you 😉 Great job!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought
These are SO good with chocolate! And thanks for that tip on cornmeal — I actually had no idea!
That’s a great tip about the cornmeal. I was not sure about how I would like these, but I did. Especially with the chocolate!
Wonderful job on these! Glad you enjoyed them!
OMG – am I ever glad I crawled out of the sick bed to check out your biscotti (and make mine finally) but THANK YOU for the tip about cornmeal. I had no freakin clue!!!
You’re the best!
(oh and your biscotti looks great, btw)
I too liked the crunch the cornmeal gave, instead of a hard dried cookie.
Great tip about the cornmeal, I’ll have to go put it in there. I hated buying a whole box of it, since I rarely use it. I did look up recipes so now I know I’ll use it up, sometime.
Your biscotti look yummy! And thanks for the tip about cornmeal…(running to freeze it right now…)
Your biscotti look amazing…very beautiful. Lovely photos, great tips…I need to start checking in here weekly! Thanks for the info on the cornmeal…I never knew that, and although we use a small box quite frequently, I have never once checked it, just assumed it was good. I will be checking from now on…thank you!
I loved this recipe too. Your biscotti turned out lovely! The almond ones were my favorites.
Thanks for the cornmeal tip. I never knew that. 🙂
Your biscotti look wonderful. They’re the perfect golden color. Yum!
“Chow”ing down on your biscotti would be delightful. They look really tasty. This recipe is a definite keeper…. Yummy!
I liked these so much more than anything from this summer’s Parade of Cookies. Nice cornmeal tip, too. I need to start giving mine the “sniff test.”
I love almond too – raw almonds, almond meal, almond extract, almond butter, yum! So I hear ya, and these biscotti look really fantastic. 🙂
Mmmm, nice biscotti you’ve got there madam! I liked the cornmeal in it too. I was surprised to hear that many didn’t like it… oh well, can’t please everyone.
Thanks for the cornmeal tip… didn’t know that.
Lovely biscotti! Thanks for the info. about the cornmeal. I’ve had some polenta sitting on the shelf for a while – time to change.
I’m with you on the flavors things. I do love chocolate, but almond, citrus, ginger are all bit hits in my book. I tried dipping some of my biscotti in semisweet chocolate, and to be honest, I liked them plain better! Yours look beautiful and I’ll remember to cut mine on the diagonal to get that added length.
I agree on the desserts. I usually chose something else over chocolate.
Great job on the biscotti! Looks delicious!
Thanks for your tip about keeping cornmeal in the freezer! Glad you could squeeze this recipe into your busy life! It was amazing, wasn’t it?!
Great tip about the cornmeal — I’ve been doing that too and it really does help. Glad you liked these! Try some lemon-ginger ones, they were awesome.