Biscotti… but not as you know it.
Amazing how you discover a new recipe. I credit this recipe to a work colleague who recently brought baking to work. She had made a big batch of biscuits with her mum. They are recreating her grandma’s old handwritten recipes with the aim to make a printed cookbook to give to family at Christmas. A really lovely idea. My colleague’s grandma is no longer alive so this is a nice way for her to live on. Anyway, my colleague didn’t know what these biscuits were called. Research online uncovered their identity. Known as either Italian Biscotti, or Italian Wedding Cookies.
Ask anyone what is biscotti. They’ll reply that they’re super hard, twice-baked cookies that beg to be dunked into a cup of tea or coffee. Biscotti when translated means ‘cookies’ so the name itself is quite generic. It doesn’t necessarily mean the hard cookie we all know and love.
Rather than hounding my colleague for the recipe, I decided to find it online myself. I was lucky to find it. But it did take a bit of searching – after all, I didn’t know what they were called. This cookie recipe was almost identical to what I had tasted. That’s a win in my eyes.
These Italian Biscotti are soft and a little on the dry side. The icing adds a bit of moisture. You can roll the rough and make twists – I’ve seen this in variations of this recipe online. I do prefer to make them into traditional cookie round shapes. I first roll them into a ball and then slightly flattened when on the baking tray. Just make sure each ball you roll is the same size as all the others. If you don’t, you’ll end up with some more cooked and browner than others.
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Italian Biscotti
Ingredients
For the cookie:
- ¾ cup butter, salted
- ½ cup icing sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 3 cups flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
For the icing:
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons water, or more
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175 degrees celsius.
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds or until softened. Add both sugars and beat until combined.
- Add eggs and vanilla and beat until incorporated into the dough. Add flour and baking powder and mix on low speed until combined.
- Take one tablespoonful of cookie dough. and roll it into a ball. Put onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Press lightly with your fingers to flatten slightly. Do this with the rest of the dough. Space out each round by 5cm on the tray.
- Bake for 6-10 minutes until cookie is set and firm but not browning around the edges. Make sure you keep an eye on them in the oven!
- Once removed, cool for a couple of minutes on the baking tray, then move to a wire cooling rack.
- To make the icing, mix icing sugar, vanilla and enough water to get a good drizzling consistency. Line a cookie sheet with baking paper. Dip the top of each cooled cookie into the icing, scraping the excess off on the side of the bowl before placing onto the prepared cookie sheet.
- Allow icing to set. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Notes
- These cookies store well for up to 1 week in an airtight container.
- If you plan to store them, make sure you let the icing set for a few hours until firm.