Tis the season...for cookies! One of my absolute favorites is this elegant Italian Pistachio Almond Biscotti cookie studded with nuggets of almonds and pistachio making for a subtly sweet, nutty, and oh so satisfying flavor. The Italian word 'biscotti' means 'twice cooked', a baking method that creates dense, crunchy textured cookies that are perfect for slow yummy nibbling or for dunking into a hot coffee. These biscotti are not only super yummilicious but also gorgeous to look at with their flecks of pistachio green. Just the thing to add to a cookie box!
Start with the nuts! We use almonds as a base and pistachio to complement and jazz up. Almond nuts provide a sweet, slightly bitter, nutty floral flavour. Pistachio nuts offer their distinctive sweet/savory, buttery, rich flavor and a most beautiful green color.
Chop the nuts, not too small, as it's nice to have larger pieces in the biscotti. If you keep the nut pieces larger they will show up more once the biscotti is sliced after the first bake. Which is pretty. But note that it's harder to slice the biscotti if the nuts are larger. So I go for medium size chopped nuts.
Start with the wet ingredients. Beat room temperature butter and sugar until combined. I like to just use one end of my rolling pin to mash it up but using a stand mixer to mix it up is fine too.
To the butter sugar mixture we add the eggs and the chopped nuts, all at once.
This is the wet mixture with everything added in. Isn't it gorgeous?
The beauty of the biscotti cookie is that it is so versatile. The base biscotti batter is simple and only lightly sweetened so it's the perfect blank canvas for cookie additions. Besides nuts, other traditional additions are dried fruits, chocolates, fruit peel, spices, liqueurs and extracts. Each different combo makes for a unique biscotti cookie flavor!
For our present biscotti, in addition to the two kinds of nuts, we first add a citrusy, fresh accent by adding in zested lemon peel. Then dashes of two enhancing extracts: vanilla and almond. For the final extra oomph factor we add in a spoonful of luscious fruit liqueur.
There are all kinds of liqueurs that can be added in. Some good choices are Grand Marnier (orange flavored), Amaretto (almond flavored), Frangelico (hazelnut-flavored) or Nocino (walnut-flavored). Or even a drop of rum. Yum...
The dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and salt are mixed in a separate bowl. Then the dry is added to the wet all at once and stirred to combine.
This is the batter after combining of the wet and the dry. As you can see it's a very wet dough. You'll need to chill it until it's firm enough to shape into two flat log like shapes (shape like in photo below). A good tip here is to use wet hands to help shape and smooth out the dough.
The two flattened log shapes are sent to the oven for the biscotti's first bake.
The first bake firms up the cookie enough to be sliced for the second bake. Here is the biscotti after the first bake, a lovely golden brown. It's taken out of the oven and cooled. As it cools the biscotti will harden enough for slicing.
Use a thin serrated bread knife to carefully slice the logs into the classic biscotti cookie shape. Go slow with the slicing as you don't want the biscotti to crumble as you slice. Be especially careful when encountering larger pieces of nuts as the knife will have a tendency to snag on them if you're not careful. Just go slow and steady.
The sliced pieces go back into the oven for the second bake until the biscotti are a golden toasty brown all over. Oooo...that aroma, these biscotti...just perfect!
Warm, rustic, comforting and oh so gorgeous to look at, these yummilicious Pistachio Almond Biscotti are the real deal. Happy cookie-ing, everyone!
Pistachio Biscotti Recipe
(makes 24 cookies) Prep: 12 mins Chill time: 30 mins Bake time: 50 mins
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar, 200g
- 1 stick unsalted butter (8 tbsp), 113g, room temperature
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup whole almonds, 100g
- 3/4 cup shelled pistachio, 100g
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp fruit flavored liqueur
- 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 343g
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Directions:
Prepare the nuts: Shell pistachios. Roughly chop pistachios and almonds.
Prepare zest: Wash lemon. Dry. Use a grater to grate the peel off the lemon. Don't grate the white parts of the peel which is bitter.
Prepare the wet ingredients: Add sugar and room temperature butter to a bowl and beat at a low speed until combined. Add nuts and eggs. Stir to combine. Add in lemon zest, almond extract, vanilla extract and fruit liqueur. Mix til combined.
Prepare the dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until combined. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just combined. Chill the dough for a half hour or until firm enough to shape.
Preheat oven: Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C or 160 fan°C).
Shape the dough: Separate the dough into two equal pieces. Line baking tray with baking paper. With wet hands, shape each piece into an approx. 12 by 2 inch flat loaf side by side on the baking tray, leaving a 3 inch gap in between.
First bake: Bake in oven for 30 mins or until a pale golden color. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 mins or until firm enough to slice without breaking.
Slice first bake: Use a thin serrated knife to slice the loaf into 3/4 inch thick slices. Place the slices back onto the baking tray. As the cookies will no longer expand you can crowd the slices.
Second bake: Bake again for another 20-25 mins or until a rich golden brown. Remove and let cool completely on a rack. Enjoy!
Storage: Once completely cooled store in a air tight container for up to a month.
Cookie-liciousness at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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