Cocoa-Cornmeal Biscotti Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making biscotti? ›

Despite their centuries-old heritage, there is no one perfect way to make biscotti. Some recipes call for eggs only, which is the traditional method, while others swear by butter or oil. The choice is yours; just keep in mind that those made with butter or oil will have both a softer texture and a shorter shelf life.

Because the dough can be sticky and hard to form, it's important to chill the batter for a good 30 minutes before baking the first time. Prepare a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper then dust it with a little flour. Transfer the batter to the baking sheet and chill in the fridge.

For crumble-free cutting, spray baked biscotti logs with water. Once your biscotti logs are baked it's time to slice them — hopefully without crumbling! I like to mist the logs with water and wait 5 minutes, then cut.

Baking soda – baking soda helps the biscotti rise and spread. Make sure that your baking soda isn't expired. Sugar- we used granulated sugar for this recipe. You can use caster sugar as well.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Biscotti will keep for at least two weeks. Biscotti may also be frozen in an airtight container for several months.

Here it is, a biscotti recipe everyone can enjoy — unlike classic Italian biscotti, which are quite hard, these are light and crunchy. Biscotti bake twice rather than once, and thus take a bit longer start-to-finish than normal drop cookies.

Biscotti are hard, crunchy cookies as they are usually baked twice - the word biscotti is derived from Italian - "bis" meaning "twice" and "cotti" meaning "cooked". Usually the dough is formed into small loaf shapes (similar to a ciabatta loaf) and baked for around 20 minutes, then cooled slightly before slicing.

A: Overbaking the logs of dough during the first baking can make the slices crumble as you are cutting them. Also, even if the logs of dough are perfectly baked, they will crumble if they are sliced while still warm, so be patient. The logs crumble when you use a dull knife, too.

Biscotti dough is inherently sticky. I recommend adequately flouring your hands before working the dough, and if it's still too sticky to handle, add a little flour at a time but just enough so you can work with it.

What happens if you forget baking powder in biscotti? ›

Most baked goods need a leavening agent to make them rise, and if you leave it out, your cake or your cookies will fall flat. Baking powder makes dough rise because it contains both a base and an acid in dried form.

After the first bake, the biscotti loaves should be firm and very lightly browned, but not hard. Loaves are ready to cut when you can touch them without burning yourself.

The trickiest parts of making them are the mixing and the shaping and baking. Just like biscuits, you can't overmix the dough. I found that if the dough is mixed too much, the biscotti becomes dense and heavy.

In summary, to produce a consistent crunch in your biscotti, it is necessary to measure and sift the ingredients. It may take some trial and error before you find out what ratio of flour-to-fat that works best for you, but remember that sifting and measuring your ingredients helps create perfect crispiness!

For softer cookies, simply bake them for a little less time than the recipe specifies. For biscotti that can stand up to dunking, bake until they are as crunchy as you like.

If your biscotti are too soft then it is likely that the cookies were not baked for long enough second time around.

A: Overbaking the logs of dough during the first baking can make the slices crumble as you are cutting them. Also, even if the logs of dough are perfectly baked, they will crumble if they are sliced while still warm, so be patient. The logs crumble when you use a dull knife, too.