Whatever ingredients are used for dry Italian cookies, the classic biscotti recipe remains the same. The secret lies in double baking, which makes the dessert light and crispy. It is prepared in the same way as ordinary crackers.
First, a loaf is formed from a special dough and baked in the oven. Then cut the finished product into slices and bake them again. But unlike biscotti crackers, Italians do not gnaw, but dip them in wine, coffee or tea. Cookies soak very quickly, become tender, fragrant and literally melt in your mouth. Due to the fact that it is perfectly soaked, it is sometimes used to make tiramisu dessert.
For the first time, biscotti is mentioned in documents dating back to the 13th century. Later sources say that Christopher Columbus willingly took it on voyages, since this pastry is very satisfying and does not spoil for a long time.
Previously, only the following products were used for cookies:
- flour - 250 g;
- sugar - 125 g;
- soda - 1 tsp;
- salt - on the tip of a knife;
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- almonds - 1 cup;
- butter - 50 g;
- Amaretto liqueur - 1 tbsp. l.
Sift flour, mix in a bowl with soda and salt. Melt the butter and wait until it cools down. Beat the eggs well, preferably with a mixer. Then, without stopping beating, gradually add sugar, pour in liquor and melted butter. Remove the mixer, add flour and knead a thick dough.
You need to knead it until it becomes plastic. After that, add the almonds to the bowl. Knead the dough again. Almonds will be much tastier if they are slightly dried in the oven. They are placed in the dough either whole or pre-cut in half.
To make the cookies especially crumbly, a part of the almonds, about 50 g, needs to be ground in a coffee grinder.
The oven must be preheated to 160°C. Give the dough an oblong shape resembling an ordinary loaf of about the same diameter. Place it on a greased baking sheet (if the oven is small, you can form two products).
Put the baguette in the oven and bake until golden brown. This will take approximately half an hour. Then remove the workpiece and cool. To do this, it is desirable to put it on the grill. Then cut with a sharp knife into slices 1-1.5 cm thick and put them on a sheet covered with parchment.
Send the baking sheet to the oven for another 20-30 minutes, but already at a temperature of 150 ° C. Turn the slices over after 10 minutes to dry evenly. When they are browned, cool on a wire rack. Before serving, biscotti can be poured with melted chocolate or condensed milk.
Classic fillers: honey, nuts and chocolate
Honey gives a special flavor to any pastry, so many pastry chefs add it to biscotti. Almonds can be replaced with other nuts, such as hazelnuts or peanuts. Thanks to chocolate, the products will acquire a rich brown color.
For chocolate chip cookies, you need to take the following products:
- flour - 1.5 cups;
- sugar - 1 glass;
- large eggs - 3 pcs.;
- soda - 1 tsp;
- salt - on the tip of a knife;
- peeled hazelnuts - 2/3 cup;
- chocolate chip - 2/3 cup
Beat eggs with sugar for 5 minutes. Then pour them into a bowl with sifted flour, which before that should be mixed with soda and salt. Knead the dough, then pour the chocolate chips and hazelnuts into it. Gently knead for another 2-3 minutes so that the fillings are evenly distributed over the dough.
However, you don’t need to get too carried away, as the chocolate chips will begin to melt from the heat of your hands. Divide the dough into 2 parts, form small loaves and bake them in the oven.
Baking with honey is prepared as follows. First you need to separate 2 egg whites and beat them together with 3 tbsp. l. sugar into a strong foam. Then, without turning off the mixer, gradually add half a glass of sifted flour and 100 g of almonds cut into small pieces. In biscotti, if the recipe is classic, it is recommended to add 0.5 tsp. ground allspice.
The dough should be baked at 180°C in rectangular molds, which are previously oiled and lined with baking paper. When a crust appears on the products, the molds must be removed from the oven and cooled.
Then remove the loaves from the molds, wrap in foil and let rest for several hours. After that, cut and dry in the oven for 20-25 minutes, not forgetting to turn over.
Cookies with fruit fillings
Only dried fruits are put into the dough. Large dried apricots, prunes or dates should be cut into pieces beforehand. Dried berries - raisins, dried cranberries or lingonberries - can be used whole. However, first you need to make sure that there are no bones left in them. In some recipes, dried fruits require pre-steam in boiling water or soak in alcohol.
This cookie can be made from a relatively small number of ingredients:
- flour - 1 cup;
- raisins, dried cranberries and almonds - 50 g each;
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- sugar - 150 g;
- vanilla sugar - 1 tsp;
- baking powder - 1 tsp;
- salt - 0.5 tsp
Mix the sifted flour with salt and baking powder, add eggs beaten with sugar. Knead the dough, gradually adding dried fruits and almonds. Shape it into 2 loaves and place in an oven preheated to 150 ° C for 30-40 minutes.
It is necessary to ensure that the bread remains golden cream, and not baked to brown.
Then cool them on a wire rack and cut obliquely into slices no more than 1 cm thick. Dry the cookies in the oven for another half an hour, but before that, reduce the temperature to 130 ° C.
To prepare the next treat, you need to prepare half a glass of oatmeal, a ripe banana, 75 g of pitted dates and 50 g of cashews. Cut the dates, dry the nuts a little in the oven and crush them. Cut bananas into rings and mash with a fork.
Add to them 1 egg and 1 tbsp. l. Sahara. Mix the mass, beat lightly with a whisk or mixer. Pour the sifted flour into it, combined with 1 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. vanilla sugar. Knead the dough, adding dates and cashews to it. It will turn out quite sticky, so you need to moisten your hands with water to form the loaf.
Bake the product for 20-25 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 ° C. When it has cooled, cut into slices 1-1.5 cm thick and re-bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes on both sides.
Festive pastries should be not only tasty, but also beautiful, so you will have to tinker with them a little longer. Cool the finished products, cut and bake again. Chocolate chip cookies go well not only with wine and coffee, but also with ice cream. If you do not like a dessert that is too dark, dark chocolate in the recipe can be replaced with white.
First you need to stock up on products:
- flour - 3 cups;
- butter - 70-75 g;
- sugar - 100 g;
- water - half a glass;
- egg yolk - 1 pc.;
- vegetable oil (preferably olive oil) - 1 tbsp. l.;
- light rum - 1 tbsp. l.;
- orange peel - 2 tbsp. l.;
- orange extract - 2-3 drops;
- salt is on the tip of a knife.
In addition, you will need 1 egg and 2 tbsp. l. melted butter to brush the cookies. The oil used for the dough does not need to be heated. It should stand in a warm place until it becomes soft. Sift the flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle, into which to place all the other products indicated in the recipe.
Knead the dough until it is no longer sticky. Then form a long loaf out of it, wrap in cling film and leave in a cold place for 2 hours.
The dough for this type of biscotti should be cut into slices before baking. Preheat the oven to 180°C, grease a baking sheet with butter. Prick each cookie in several places with a fork, brush with beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes. During this time, the products will acquire a rich golden color.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to cool slightly (but no more than 5 minutes). Then grease the still warm slices with melted butter and place in the oven for 5-6 minutes. After that, cool the delicacy on the wire rack. From above, you can draw patterns with melted white and dark chocolate, sprinkle with crushed nuts.
Biscotti is a traditional Italian cookie. The name is formed from two roots: bi is "two", and "scottare" is an oven, i.e. this confectionery is baked twice... First baked, and then also dried. Excellent, tasty and long-lasting pastries for tea, coffee, cocoa, milk, i.e. for almost any drink.
It is believed that classic biscotti is almond, and in general, the filling in biscotti can be very different: any nuts, various dried fruits, natural flavors (coffee, zest, vanilla, cocoa ...), etc. In various sources, I came across both lubricating the dough before baking biscotti with protein and yolk. Chose the option - protein!
Prepare the ingredients according to the list:
Rinse raisins and soak in water.
Mix one egg and the yolk of the second egg with a fork. Leave the second protein to lubricate the dough before baking the blanks.
Combine flour, sugar and baking powder, mix.
Add eggs, ice water and knead the dough.
The dough will turn out pretty cool.
If almonds or other nuts are not toasted, then fry, or rather, dry them in a pan until browned. In my version, the purchased almonds were already prepared. Add nuts to the dough. Drain the liquid from the raisins, dry them, sprinkle with flour and also add to the dough.
Mix the filling evenly with the dough.
Shape the dough into two "sausages" with a diameter of about four cm, place them on a greased baking sheet, flatten a little and grease the surface with the stirred protein.
Place the blanks in an oven preheated to 175-180 degrees for half an hour.
Cool the biscotti blanks and then cut into slices about 1 cm thick. Lay again on a baking sheet and place in the oven until browned, this is about 10-15 minutes.
Italian biscotti cookies, fragrant and tasty, are ready. I should note that this is a hard cookie, it is usually dipped in the drinks with which it is served, or you can just nibble ...))
Biscotti can be stored for quite a long time in boxes or in jars without access to moisture.
Happy tea!
Today I propose to bake Italian biscotti cookies with Tatyana, she provided us with a classic recipe with a photo immediately after cooking. This time the cookies will be very tasty, not only because they are homemade, but also because Tatyana suggests making lemon biscotti with almonds. Wouldn't you love this combination? In any case, you need to try. But first, I suggest you listen to the author of the recipe.
A lesson in a culinary school. Cooking almond biscotti
I was terribly glad when, as part of the Zimin School of Food program, I was offered to cook biscotti. I love them very much and often buy (bought) in stores or cafes. And now I can do it myself. The recipe is so simple and so reliable that it’s even nice.
If you haven't met them, I'll tell you. Biscotti are dry and pleasantly sweet crackers, most often with whole almonds, but sometimes with other flavors, originally from Italy. Their history goes back 2000 years, maybe more, who knows. Once upon a time, their main task was not to deteriorate as long as possible. These are the same crackers that soldiers and sailors took with them on campaigns. Original biscotti without yeast and oil, dried twice, can be stored forever. If you accidentally unearth such a cracker somewhere where the foot of the Roman legionnaires has set foot, you can safely eat it, as they say.
Of course, the public has slightly different requirements for modern biscotti: we want them to be a little softer and tastier, even if this will negatively affect their possible shelf life. Moreover, they are so glorious that they simply do not have time to be stored for a long time, four days is their ceiling. Or you need to increase the proportions. However, if you suddenly have them lying around, know that even in the modern version they can be stored for months, and no decay will touch them.
The character of biscotti is determined by their meaning: these cookies are always baked in the shape of a loaf, then cut into pieces of a typical oblong shape and baked again. So the crackers are thoroughly dried and prepared for long storage. By the way, in translation from Latin, their name sounds like this, “twice-baked”.
Feel free to eat them by soaking them in tea or coffee or any other drink. Italians, for example, usually soak them in dessert wine. It's also a delicious tradition.
Ingredients
- wheat flour - 220 g
- rice flour - 30 g (can be replaced with wheat; rice flour makes biscotti a little more tender)
- whole almonds - 100 g
- brown sugar - 100 g (can be replaced with white)
- eggs - 4 pcs.
- lemon peel - 1 pc.
- baking powder - 1.5 tsp
- salt - 1 pinch
How to make biscotti cookies. Classic recipe with photo
- We will prepare all the ingredients so that later we do not rush around the kitchen senselessly.
- I mix two flours with baking powder. These are powder ingredients.
- I was taught to peel almonds. In principle, you don’t have to peel it, there is such a tradition, just keep in mind that the skin will give a rougher structure to the finished cracker, and make your decision.
- If you decide to peel, then blanch the almonds in boiling water for 4 minutes.
- Then recline in a colander and throw in ice water (i.e. water with ice).
- When it has cooled, put it back in a colander and clean it mechanically with your hands.
- Nuts fly out of the skins without the slightest physical effort.
- Then I roast the peeled almonds over medium heat in a dry frying pan. This dries it out and gives it a new pleasant aroma. Warning: Almonds burn quickly, so keep your eyes on the pan and stir constantly. The whole procedure will take 5-7 minutes.
- I peel the zest from the lemon. She will be responsible for the lemon flavor, but it will not give acid. Pure water flavoring for our Italian biscotti cookies.
- The preparatory phase is over. I knead the biscotti dough. Beat the whites and yolks separately, grind the yolks with sugar, and beat the whites into a fluffy foam with salt. Together they won't foam and the dough will be hard and flat, so this separation is necessary.
- Here is the foam of proteins with salt.
- Here are the yolks with sugar. I thought about it and got a little overwhelmed. This is not critical, but such zeal is completely unnecessary. It is enough just to dissolve the sugar in the yolks.
- I add the foam from the proteins to the yolks and carefully, so as not to damage, mix with a spatula from the bottom up.
- I add zest and flour (flour - gradually).
- I add almonds. Lemon biscotti dough is soft and sticky. Not cool at all.
- I wet my hands with water so that the dough does not stick to them.
- I spread it on baking paper on a baking sheet with such bars the size of a palm. From this proportion, 4 bars are obtained.
- I bake biscotti in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 25 minutes.
- I get it. I let them cool until I can easily hold them with my hands and not get burned. I cut each sausage into characteristic slices.
- I spread them again on the same paper and dry them in a slightly cooled oven at 150 degrees for another 15 minutes. That's drying.
- Here they are, sweethearts.
- See how nice the almonds look when cut. Now they can be taken on a hike in a canvas bag. Soak, drizzle with honey or chocolate, or just nibble.
Bon appetit!
Cookies in the usual sense are baked once, that is, the dough is made, formed piece by piece and put into the oven. Is there a cookie that looks different than the standard one and is placed in the oven twice? Yes, this is the so-called "biscotti", an Italian delicacy that is easy to prepare, and then surprise relatives and guests with it.
The main principle of baking biscotti cookies is that first long loaf-shaped blanks are made, then they are cut into slices and dried to a crispy state, this condition is observed in all recipes. Biscotti seems dry, even hard, but here it must be said about the second principle in relation to such a dish - it is served strictly with drinks: tea, coffee, even wine are the obligatory “partners” of this cookie on the table.
The origin of the name is a controversial issue among culinary specialists. The first opinion: once biscotti was a secondary product of the processing of stale biscuits - they were cut into pieces and dried, turning into crackers. That is, the word "biscotti" is allegedly derived from the word "biscuit". The second opinion: “bis” means twice (double heat treatment), “cotti” - in fact, there are cookies, so “biscotti” came out. They say that Christopher Columbus adored him, and took with him on his first trip huge boxes full of these cookies. The legendary traveler did it for a reason: biscotti can be stored for a long time in a sealed container. You can argue about the "correctness" of these cookies, similar to croutons, endlessly, but it will be more useful to cook it yourself and try it.
Classic biscotti recipe
The simplest biscotti is baked with two ingredients - kishmish (pitted raisins) and walnuts. One more nuance: in many recipes they write that butter is needed, but it can be replaced with a spread without any loss of taste - a product that has already become familiar in our stores, consisting of butter and high-quality margarine in equal proportions.
So, for classic biscotti we need:
- butter or spread - 200 g;
- eggs - 3-4 pieces;
- flour - 2 standard glasses without top;
- sugar - the same glass without a top;
- sultanas and walnuts (peeled) - 3 tablespoons each;
- soda and vinegar;
- on the tip of the knife - vanilla.
The dough preparation process
1. We leave the oil outside the refrigerator in the evening when we are going to bake biscotti in the morning. If you need to cook cookies urgently, then melt the butter (or spread) in a water bath and let it cool.
2. Beat the eggs into foam, add sugar there, continue to beat at maximum speed until the sugar dissolves to the last grain.
3. Pour half the flour into a mixture of sugar and eggs, mix, add oil to the liquid (yet) dough, mix with a mixer.
4. Kishmish and nuts grind (not for long) in a mixer. Grind briefly, into pieces, not into porridge.
5. Add them to the watery dough, add vanilla there, extinguish quite a bit of soda with vinegar, pour it into the dough too, mix thoroughly.
6. Now it's the turn of the second glass of flour, knead the dough with your hands. A baking sheet can be greased with butter (if Teflon), we simply cover it with cooking parchment. On a baking sheet we form two long "bars". We put in the oven, which is heated to about 200 degrees.
Loaves, future biscotti, should be browned.
7. We take out the pastries and immediately cut them into pieces, slightly obliquely or evenly, a matter of taste. Reduce the heat in the oven a little. Spread the biscuit pieces evenly on the baking sheet and return to the oven to dry. The time spent in the oven depends on the thickness of the cookies: if cut with a thickness of 1 cm, 3 minutes is enough, one and a half cm - 5 minutes are needed.
Ready biscotti should be allowed to cool under a towel, then you can put them in a storage container, or serve them on the table, where guests, tea and coffee are already waiting for them.
Biscotti oatmeal with almonds
Yes, you can cook this cookie not only from wheat flour, but also partially replacing it with oatmeal.
Products:
- butter or spread - 150 g;
- small hercules (you can take a regular one and grind it) - 2 cups;
- 3 medium sized eggs;
- sugar: the same glass with which the oatmeal was measured - two-thirds;
- wheat flour - two thirds of a glass;
- whole peeled almonds - a third of a glass;
- vanilla;
- soda and vinegar.
1. Oil for herculean biscotti should be liquid and slightly hot - melt it in a water bath. Let it cool down quite a bit, pour the hercules there, mix thoroughly. Next, we deal with eggs and sugar.
2. Again: first beat the eggs, then continue to beat them with sugar. The resulting mass must be added to the already warm mixture of oil and oatmeal and stir with a mixer.
3. It turned out until a semi-liquid dough, pour the almonds there, mix evenly. Now you can add vanilla. We add half of the flour to the dough, mix, turn the soda slaked with vinegar (we mix again), then the second half of the flour and mix it completely with our hands.
4. Next - the standard process: the formation of loaves, their baking, cutting into slices, drying. Biscotti cookies, when cut into pieces, give a lot of crumbs, and oatmeal - even more, but this is not terrible, it should be so. We just take a very sharp thin knife, they just cut whole almonds well.
Biscotti cookies "Chocolate shock" with hazelnuts and honey
Honey is added to standard products (flour, eggs, sugar) in this recipe - it will make biscotti look like gingerbread and more high-calorie.
Required products:
- medium-sized eggs - 3 pcs;
- butter (or spread) - 200 g;
- sugar - two thirds of a glass;
- honey - a teaspoon;
- flour - 2 cups;
- vinegar and soda;
- whole hazelnut - half a glass;
- chocolate - 100 g.
The last ingredient can be prepared in two ways. First: we rub a standard-sized bar of dark chocolate on a fine grater. The second way: we buy small “plaques” for the weight of 100 g of chocolates, grind them in a coffee grinder or a mixer.
Whisk the eggs and beat in the sugar until completely dissolved. Add soft butter, again work with a mixer. Mix a teaspoon of honey well with a mixer in the resulting mass. Pour half the flour, mix again, add the nuts, distribute them evenly over the dough with a spoon. We extinguish the soda on the tip of the spoon with vinegar, add the second half of the flour and chopped chocolate, knead the dough by hand until the end.
We make loaves, bake them. With chocolate, biscotti bakes faster, besides, it will not be visible how it starts to blush - we carefully look at the dough while it is in the oven so as not to burn. Take out, cut with a sharp knife, dry. The photo shows that the cookies came out dark, but the photo does not convey the wonderful nut-honey exquisite aroma! Nuts in such cookies are put whole (as in the recipe above), but you can also chop them.
Diet biscotti gluten-free cookies
A new direction has appeared in cooking, which has become a real panacea for those who are harmful to gluten, or if there is a desire to use it minimally. This is a gluten-free diet - it helps asthma sufferers, makes life easier for allergy sufferers. Doctors also categorically recommend transferring children with autism to a gluten-free diet. This recipe is for those who, for some reason, cannot (or do not want to) eat bread products made from wheat flour.
Components:
- gluten-free flour (you can buy it on the Internet or in large malls) - 250 g;
- xanthan (polysaccharide food supplement) - 1 teaspoon;
- sugar - two thirds of a glass;
- baking powder - half a teaspoon;
- medium-sized eggs - 3 pieces;
- olive oil - two thirds of a glass;
- vanilla - a pinch;
- any dried fruits, nuts, raisins (or a little bit of everything) - half a glass.
Preparation of eggs, sugar - the same: first beat the eggs, then with sugar. Pour olive oil into it, mix with a mixer at high speeds. Olive, not creamy - because it is better "friends" with gluten-free flour.
Add flour, xanthan, baking powder, dried fruits and nuts, mix with your hands. This time it is better to use baking powder, not soda with vinegar: soda and vinegar "work" for leavening with wheat flour, and our flour (gluten-free) does not mix well with them. Don't forget to add vanilla.
The dough will be very sticky, so you need to form long rolls with wet hands. Lubricate the bars well with beaten yolk or sweet water: gluten-free cookies will be baked without greasing pale.
Further - according to the standard scheme: baking, cutting, drying. Such cookies can be eaten by people without health problems - they are well absorbed, and xanthan is recognized as a completely safe additive that reduces the calorie content of baking.
The "great-grandfathers" of biscotti were once in the days of the Roman Empire cakes with almonds - they were baked twice to dry completely, and given to soldiers on campaigns. Then biscotti in a sweet version entered the menu both at the imperial court and among ordinary residents. It was appreciated for its delicate taste, excellent combination with wine and for the fact that they are "long-playing" - they retain their taste for many weeks, do not become stale. The philosopher Pliny wrote that properly prepared biscotti can be stored for a couple of centuries. You should not make "blanks" for great-grandchildren from biscotti, of course! But you should always have cookies at home that won't go bad!
Sift flour into a bowl with baking powder, add a pinch of salt. Cut the cold butter into cubes, then put it in the bowl of a food processor, add sugar and grind everything into crumbs.
Add the eggs to the butter while continuing to beat. Then add flour little by little. Add chopped nuts and raisins. Knead the resulting dough well on a floured surface, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180 gr.S. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Take the dough out of the fridge, knead it again and shape it into a flat loaf. Transfer the dough to a baking sheet, send in the oven for 15 minutes.
Take the tray out of the oven. Cut the loaf into slices 1-2 cm thick. Spread the resulting cookies on a baking sheet with the cut side up and send it back to the oven, bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Cool the finished cookies a little, pour with melted white chocolate or brush with peanut butter. If desired, you can decorate the delicacy by sprinkling nuts or raisins on top.
Bon appetit!
