Why the caution in over beating?

I used to bake biscotti in a bakery for years. It’s interesting to note that, when you see biscotti recipes that don’t include butter (eggs being the only liquid), the resulting cookies will be very hard. MilkBone hard. It’s why they’re historically dunked in coffee.

If you see a biscotti recipe that includes butter, the cookies will be crunchy, but not nearly as hard.

The bakery owner asked me to make them with butter because she was afraid her older customers would break their teeth.

This is a pretty rustic and hard biscotti, so this may be why the eggs and sugar aren't beaten until fluffy. Hope you'll give the recipe a try!

Even though biscotti are crunchy, they're not tough. Beating anything with flour will develop the gluten and toughen baked goods.

It's worth noting that the author is specifically saying not to overwork the dough which develops gluten structure. A chewy texture is desirable in bread, not biscotti.

She is *NOT* commenting about creaming sugar and eggs (which naturally does not develop gluten structure).

I do the same thing with mine: just mix until homogenous. Don't knead the dough.

But I do a bunch of other things differently. I peel my nuts (almonds or hazelnuts) then toast them. I use baking powder, not baking soda. Some people use butter in their biscotti dough, I do not. I use almond extract for almond biscotti but vanilla extract for hazelnut biscotti. I add orange zest in mine. I will often refrigerate the dough overnight. I don't butter baking sheets, I use parchment paper instead (silicon sheets probably work fine). I do the second bake on wire racks (a tip from Alice Medrich via "Baking With Julia" TV episode from the mid-Nineties) to promote drying.

If your technique is providing satisfactory results, just keep doing it. The most important duty for any cook/baker is put something on the table that pleases his/her guests.

It's important to remember that all of these old preparations (not just cantuccini) have countless variations based on who is cooking/baking. So if the family over the hill makes their biscotti slightly different than yours, that's perfectly understandable. There is no recipe police who will knock on your door to whisk you away to culinary prison.

In her massive cookbook "Le Ricette Regionali Italiane" author Anna Gossetti della Salda repeatedly remarks that there are many variants to old recipes.

I probably have over 30-40 biscotti recipes but I basically stick with one. That particular recipe I mix the dry ingredients (flour + sugar + baking powder) together and add lightly beaten egg to that, no creaming of sugar and egg. I'm sure Amanda is happy with her recipe.

Anyhow try Amanda's recipe if you're curious. Based on the testimonies, it appears to be serviceable.

Best of luck.