cookies: espresso and almond biscotti

i must confess, i was not nearly as excited to head to the baking and pastry kitchen on cookie day as i was on the bread-making days. my limited experiences with cookies during childhood were always quite polarizing. either i made the fool-proof chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the hershey’s chocolate chip bag, spreading the dough into an even layer and baking it until the corners were just browned and the centers oozed flabbily with barely cooked dough and chocolate chips. or my sister, mom and i would slave over her mother’s shortbread cookie recipe, which involved a recipe that tasted better raw than baked, an ancient cookie gun-and-press and old bags of edible glitter and sprinkles that came out once a year for this specific occasion. the final product was a mountain of misshapen trees and holiday figures that no one particularly wanted to eat. suffice to say that aside from the rare occasion i’d make the chocolate chip cookie bars, i actually hated making cookies growing up.

much to my surprise, baking biscotti is a delight. these elegant dry cookies are fairly straightforward to make and perfect for dipping in coffee or espresso. biscotti in italian means “twice cooked.” after shaping the dough into a mound, it is baked once and cooled. then, it is sliced into the customary strips, and they are baked again on low heat so they dry out on all sides. since much of their moisture is lost when they are baked a second time, biscotti keep very well. “they are basically staled on purpose,” as Chef Kim puts it. this recipe, which requires the creaming method for mixing–as most cookies do–is adapted from wayne gisslen’s professional baking.

espresso almond biscotti

yield: about 15 1/2-inch bars

4 oz. butter
6 oz. sugar
1 t. salt
2 eggs
0.5 oz water, hot
2 t. instant espresso (or 3 t. instant coffee)
10 oz. pastry flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
3.5 oz. blanched whole almonds

preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. cream together the butter, sugar and salt until combined.

add the eggs, and mix until combined. dissolve the espresso powder in the hot water, and add that to the creamed mixture. blend together the pastry flour and baking powder; add that to the wet ingredients, and mix until combined. be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl a few times to make sure there are no butter or flour chunks. next, fold in the almonds. you will see when you slice the cookies why they are whole. dust the counter with a little flour, and shape the dough into a log with sloped ends.

place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment. bake the dough for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until slightly cracked on top and browned.

turn the oven down to 275 degrees F. let the log cool. then slice diagonally across into 1/2-in.-thick bars.

for some reason, i love the rhythmic, crumbling sound of a sharp bread knife slicing the log into bars, especially when there are whole almonds speckled throughout.

place the cut side down on sheet pans, and bake until the bars are toasted and dry, about 30 more minutes. now, pour yourself a little hot espresso or coffee, and prepare to dip and crunch. the chalky crunch of the whole almond pieces is a wonderful surprise as you bite into the coffee-soaked biscotti. as i said before, these will keep for a long time on the counter because they are so dry.