vanity may have moved me to uncross my eyes when my nana warned they would “get stuck that way,” but the threat of spoiling my dinner was never (and never will be) enough to keep me from reaching for dessert first.
i mean, seriously - would you honestly put down a cookie to save room for a salad?
‘NUFF SAID.
with that in mind, i’m kicking off our belated shabbat dinner coverage with something sweet.
while jenny and liza set their sites on the savory, i took the reigns on dessert.
my friend amy had just surprised me with alice waters’s gorgeous book, TARTINE, and i seized the opportunity to christen it with a biscotti recipe from chez panisse.
as one partial to chewy over crunchy when it comes to cookies (tates being the exception), i have never been the biggest biscotti fan. they seem to me a cookie for coffee drinkers - your mother’s dunkaroo. suffice it to say i’ve never made them, nor would i have had the night’s menu not been a group effort.
so, as with most of my spoon licking adventures, i entered the kitchen blind on this one. luckily, biscotti a la alice waters are no grand undertaking. the recipe is pretty simple and easy to execute, if you discount the unavailability of airplane sized bottles of grappa.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup almonds, with skins (you can optionally increase the amt up to double)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, very soft
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1tsp aniseeds
4 tsp grappa with 1 tsp anise extract (consume excess grappa while baking)
2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Optional: 1 large egg for egg wash
DIRECTIONS
1. preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. coarsely chop the almonds and set them aside.
3. cream butter in a mixing bowl until light and creamy, about 2 min.
4. slowly add sugar, beating until light in color and fluffy, about 2 min, and scrape down the sides of the bowl bowl with rubber spatula.
5. add eggs and beat until the mixture is smooth.
6. beat in aniseeds and grappa.
7. add flour, baking powder and salt, mixing until just combined.
8. stir in the almonds.
9. on a lightly floured surface, divide dough into 2 equal portions and shape each into a log about the length of your baking sheet and 2 inches in diameter.
10. place the logs on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart and optionally paint each with an even coat of whisked egg for glaze.
11. bake the logs until set to the touch and lightly browned on top, about 25 minutes (this took a lot longer in my oven)
12. remove the logs and cool on a wire rack for five minutes before transferring to a cutting board. cut each log on the diagonal into slices about 2 1/2 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick.
or, if you’re feeling manly, go for a meatier cut:
VERDICT: these biscotti are capital D DELISH!
my only regret is not doubling the recipe. sure, my biscotti were probably double the recommended size, but even the estimated 4 1/2 dozen would not have been enough. these suckers are that good.
consider me a convert!
xx
alexandra
