Cooling time & baking for second time 30 minutesmins
Course Snack
Cuisine European, Italian
Servings 15biscotti
Ingredients
110gramsplain flour
3/4teaspoonbaking powder
pinchofsalt
25gramsground almonds
50gramswhole almonds (blanched - without skin)optional
75gramscaster sugarwhite sugar
1egg
1tablespoonlemon zest
1teaspoonlemon essence
Lemon Drizzle (optional)
1 1/2teaspoonegg whiteor lemon juice
3tablespoonsicing sugarconfectioners sugar
1teaspoonlemon juiceor little more
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3
Add the flour, baking powder, lemon zest and salt into a large bowl and mix well.
Add the ground and whole almonds (if using) and sugar and mix all together
Add the egg and the lemon extract and mix it together first with a wooden spoon and then using your hands to bring the mixture together to form a smooth dough. It will be fairly tough dough, but that's fine.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and, using your hands, roll it into a log about 30cm long and about 5 cm wide (or similar size to that)
Put the biscotti log on the lined baking sheet and bake it near the centre of the oven for 30 minutes.
After that, transfer it to a cooling tray and leave until completely cold. Don't be tempted to cut the biscotti before they are completely cool otherwise, they will look squished and lose their shape.
Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C, gas mark 2.
Use a sharp serrated knife to cut the biscotti into slightly diagonal slices about 1cm wide.
Place them back on the lined baking tray - this time flat - and bake for another 30 minutes until pale gold and crisp. At this point, you are really just drying them out.
Transfer the bisctotti to the cooling tray and when cold, store in an airtight container for up to week (or more). I've successfully stored my biscotti for about 4 weeks, but they are usually gone by week three.
If you want to, you can freeze biscotti on the day when you bake them and should be fine in freezer up to 1-2 months.
Lemon Icing (optional)
To add extra zest to your biscuits you can make a simple lemon icing by mixing lemon juice, icing sugar and an egg white.
Mix everything together until you get a smooth paste, easy enough to drizzle over the biscotti, but not too runny (add more icing sugar if the icing is too runny).
Drizzle over the biscotti and leave to dry before packaging or serving (the icing will dry completely in 12-24 hrs).