How to Make Walnut Biscotti

This is my mom's famous Biscotti recipe. I've been bringing my mom's biscotti to work and everyone loves it because they are not as hard as the traditional biscottis. Ours is slightly soft but still crunchy. Biscottis are great with tea or coffee!! I've always thought this Italian treat is hard to make but they're just as easy to make at home as any other cookie. The baking process is long as these cookies are baked twice, yes...twice. Biscotti would make an excellent gift for the holidays!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• electric mixer
• whisk
• cutting board
• cookie sheet or biscotti baking pan
• PAM spray
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 eggs
• long sharp knife

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare flour and egg mixtures -
   
   
   Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and walnuts in a mixer.
   
   
   Whisk eggs and vanilla extract until well blended. Combine the two mixtures (egg and flour) together and mix until the mixture is thick and sticky.
3. Grease your cookie sheet. Divide dough into two and transfer to a cookie sheet. Form the dough into 10" long loaves.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned and firm. Remove from cookie sheet and let it cool just long enough that you can touch them.
5. Place loaf on a cutting board and cut diagonally into 1/2" thick slices. Do the same thing with the other loaf. Then, on the same sheet, arrange the sliced cookies by facing the cut side down.
6. Put the cookie sheet back to the oven and bake again for another 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown and a little bit firmer.
7. Let it cool and store in an airtight container.

Tips & Warnings

• I entered this recipe in my company's bake off contest in 2005 and it made it to 3rd place.