Best Vanilla Almond Biscotti

Wonderfully crispy, crunchy Vanilla Almond Biscotti (Cantucci)! It’s a satisfyingly firm cookie but not teeth-breaking hard.

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Why You’ll Love These

As I’ve said before, I’m obsessed with biscotti. They are the perfect treat for morning or afternoon coffee or tea. 

This recipe is easily adjusted to accommodate almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, or cashews.

It’s actually a great biscotti base dough that you can add in whatever you wish!

We also love making our Italian sesame cookies, Amaretti cookies, and crispy gingersnap cookies to have on hand for afternoon snacking or with coffee for breakfast.

Recipes Ingredients

• All-purpose flour – Always measure the flour properly. Aerate, spoon, and swoop level.
• Granulated sugar – These cookies only use one cup of sugar which makes them just sweet enough.
• Unsalted butter – I only use unsalted butter so I can control the salt.
• Eggs – This recipe calls for large eggs at room temperature. Eggs bind the dough and when they are at room temperature they combine with the other ingredients better.
• Baking powder – Baking powder gives rise to cookies.
• Salt – Salt helps enhance the flavor and balances out the sweetness.
• Vanilla extract – We recommend pure vanilla extract to compliment the almond flavor.
• Almond extract – This recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of almond extract to really bump up the flavor.
• Whole almonds – Slivered almonds or chopped almonds also work, but we like the chunks of almonds in each cookie.

How to Make Vanilla Almond Biscotti

This biscotti recipe is super easy to make just a little time-consuming.

Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the almonds on the sheet pan and lightly toast for about 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Increase the oven temperature to 350ºF.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Add the room-temperature eggs and mix to combine.

Add the dry ingredients 1/3 at a time to the butter/egg mixture and stir until just combined.

Stir in the almonds.

Dampen your fingers and divide the dough in half. Then shape the dough into 2 – 4″x10″ logs on a baking sheet prepped with parchment paper.

Brush the tops of the dough logs with egg wash (optional).

Bake for about 30 minutes, until lightly golden. Baking times may vary for your oven.

Remove from the oven and let cool enough to be handled for about 10-15 minutes.

Carefully transfer to a cutting board.

With a serrated knife, carefully slice the logs into 3/4 inch thick slices and arrange them on the baking sheet cut side down.

Bake again for 15 minutes, remove and turn each slice over to the other cut side and bake another 10-15 minutes until golden and dry.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy every last one of them yourself or share with a friend! I may or may not have eaten all of these myself.

Tips

• Measure the flour properly. Aerate, spoon, and swoop level.
• Use room temperature eggs.
• The dough is a little sticky, dampen your fingers to shape the logs.
• Let the biscotti logs cool for about 5-10 minutes after the first bake before slicing. This will help prevent crumbling and breaking.
• Use a serrated knife to slice the biscotti. This also helps prevent breaking and achieve a clean slice.
• Slicing the biscotti also cuts the whole almonds, so don’t worry that there will be whole almonds in every bite.
• Let the cookies cool completely before serving. They firm up as they cool.

Variations

• If you love the classic flavor of anise in biscotti you can use up to 1 teaspoon of anise extract and reduce the almond extract to 1 teaspoon.
• If you like a thinner biscotti slice it into 1/2 inch wide slices. Bake them for about 5-10 minutes per side.
• If you like a less firm biscotti reduce the second baking time to 5-10 minutes.

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