Passover

Maple Walnut Biscotti

by:
March 29, 2012
4
2 Ratings
Maple Walnut Biscotti
  • Makes about 3 dozen
Author Notes

Best dessert with coffee: what else but biscotti? To maintain my “bottomless” biscotti jar, I bake a batch just about every week out of a jumble of memories from my grandmother’s kitchen and the closest ingredients on hand. Almonds are my usual choice for “mandelbrot,” but most any variety of nuts will do for biscotti.

Best biscotti recipe I know comes out of the pages of Andrew Carmellini’s Urban Italian: Simple Recipes and True Stories from a Life in Food. The recipe is very forgiving with my choices to change up its flavorings and modify its proportions. I’ve added maple and walnuts as substitutions for the recipe’s call for lemon zest and pistachio.

I’ve also experimented with a flour-less and butter-less version of the recipe that’s “parve”- Kosher for Passover. Matzoh cake meal is the substitute for the flour; vegetable oil fills in as the shortening. Thanks to an inspiration from Marcy Goldman’s Best Baking, ginger ale goes into the mix instead of baking power.

Happy coffee-dunking. —Vivian Henoch

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Maple Walnut Biscotti Italian-Style
  • 3 large eggs (reserve 1 egg for egg wash)
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Flour-Free Maple Walnut Biscotti, Kosher for Passover
  • 4 eggs (reserve 1 for egg wash)
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 1/2 cups matzoh meal cake flour
  • 1/2 cup gingerale
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a baking sheet. Using a whisk attachment on an electric mixer, whip eggs and sugar until mixture becomes light and frothy. Add melted butter(or oil) , maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt.
  2. Replace whisk attachment with paddle attachment: Add flour, baking power, (Note: omit baking powder for kosher version; add gingerale) and mix at low speed. Stir in walnuts so that nuts are combined in a sticky dough.
  3. Shape dough into 2 logs, each about 9 inches long, 2 inches wide. Place on baking sheet. Whisk the remain egg and lightly brush logs with egg wash. Dust with cinnamon and sugar.
  4. Bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned and set. Remove loaves from oven and let them cool until the logs are warm, about 10 minutes.
  5. Lower the oven temperature to 325°F. With a serrated knife, carefully cut into diagonal slices about ½-inch thick; dough will be slightly soft inside. Return slices in one layer to a cleaned baking sheet, and bake until crunchy.
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2 Reviews

Candice H.
Candice H. April 7, 2020
Hmm.....I had to add in quite a bit of extra flour in order to roll this dough into a log. I had a wet dough that was sticking like cray and in no way going to cooperate with rolling! I double checked that I used the right amount of ingredients. I did. Any thoughts fellow bakers?
 
sbc1023
sbc1023 February 16, 2016
These were nice for a change from the almond or cinnamon hazelnut biscotti that I usually make. The maple flavor was not as pronounced as I'd like, mable some maple extract next time. I sprinkled the uncut logs with a cinnamon sugar mix. After the first baking, I turned the slices on their sides on the baking sheet and sprinkled again. Second baking took about 20 minutes. They will continue to crisp up as they cool.