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Traditional Italian Almond Biscotti

by:
December 11, 2009
3.5
11 Ratings
  • Makes 36 biscotti
Author Notes

These traditional Italian biscotti are fool-proof. I know, because my mom and I have been making them for years. They're classic no-frills biscotti that are just chock-full of toasted whole almonds and laced with fragrant orange zest. They're satisfyingly firm rather than jaw-breakingly hard, which makes them ideal for dunking in hot coffee. Biscotti can be made ahead and stored. Given their sturdy texture, they stand up well to packing, so they make a great edible gift to mail. —Food Blogga

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Ingredients
  • 3 cups whole almonds
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 jumbo sized eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • zest of 1 large orange (about 2 teaspoons)
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten for brushing on top of loaves
Directions
  1. In a large bowl, hand mix toasted almonds, sugars, cinnamon, baking powder, and flour.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk eggs. Add the vanilla and orange zest and whisk until well blended. Add to the flour mixture. Work the batter together with lightly floured hands. The mixture will be sticky, but persevere. Keep squeezing the batter with your hands, until a dough starts to form. Once the dough is firm, form a ball. Divide the ball into four equal pieces.
  3. On a lightly floured surface place one piece of dough, and using your hands, roll into a log shape that is approximately 8 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 3/4 of an inch high. Repeat with remaining three pieces of dough. Place two logs per baking sheet.
  4. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the tops of the loaves are shiny and deep golden. Cool on a rack for about 20 minutes before slicing. Place a loaf on a cutting board, and using a large serrated knife, slice cookies 3/4 of an inch thick on the diagonal. If the cookie is crumbling, then let it cool a few more minutes. Don't let it rest too long, however, or they could become too hard to slice. Place slices on their sides back on to the baking sheets; place in the still warm oven with the temperature off and the door closed for 30-60 minutes. The longer they stay in the oven, the harder they will become. Remove from oven and cool completely before storing in an air-tight container, preferably a tin, which helps keep them crisp. Stored properly, biscotti will last up to a month.
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29 Reviews

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Rhonda35 December 2, 2023
If you want a perfect biscotti recipe, use this one on the F52 site - from Amanda Hesser/Corby Kummer. It’s fantastic!

https://food52.com/recipes/82212-almond-biscotti-recipe
Lt December 2, 2023
I couldn’t find my original Italian almond spice cookie recipe, so I thought I would try this one. It sounded very similar at first because I haven’t made it in a long time but it was not good from the start. No temperature given. Too much sugar. Not enough spices and when I looked up my original recipe (finally) the reason the recipe needs liquid is because you put the hot roasted almonds in the mix and the heat melts the sugars so you don’t need butter or oil. I will stick to my old time, tried and true recipe. I don’t know why this recipe isn’t deleted if they can’t fix it (add temp!). Also my recipe only takes 15 to 20 minutes to cook not 40.
MICHELE L. March 5, 2023
Wow! A lot of diverse opinions about this recipe. Aside from the missing temp, it's perfect in my opinion. It comes down to what style of biscotti you like. These are like the ones you get in Italian restaurants after dinner. They're very crisp, not cakey at all, and chock full o' nuts. I didn't have a hard time cutting them after the first bake, but you do need a sharp serrated knife, like an 8" bread knife.
Mmarykittu December 23, 2022
First off all no mention of temperature or cooking time… next at what point do we brush the cookies with the egg whites? Cookies still in oven so I cannot comment on taste. How bout proof reading recipe before posting?
Stella12 January 17, 2022
This is not a very good recipe. I made the cookies exactly as directed (no oven temp given) so I used 350. The is not much flavor and they hard as rocks. Definitely need coffee to dunk. They need oil or butter, almond extract and about 1/2 the sugar. I should have read the reviews first...
dcatino@comcast.net December 22, 2021
This recipe is absolutely an authentic recipe! Thank you to whoever posted this! We have been baking these biscotti's for many years exactly as the recipe is written. No one has complained they are too sweet. Our family and friends rave about these cookies and there are never any left over! The only tweak we have made to the preparation, so that they are no too hard, is eliminate placing them in the oven again after being sliced from the loaves, but this is a personal preference. Buen Appetito!
TimD July 6, 2021
Soooo, pretty disappointed with this recipie. It's not traditional according to my Nonna. I couldn't get some of her when I was making them or find her recipe cards smh. That being said, cut the sugar in half. 1/2 cup each, biscotti aren't supposed to be sweet, a hint at best. I do 3/4 total sugar but that's me trynna cut back on sugar. You need butter or olive oil in this. Also you need a liquor. I use nice amaretto, Disarronno. It's a lil pricey but so worth it. I use vanilla paste and a must is Almond Extract. It brings out the flavors to max. I rough chopped the almonds so they were more evenly distributed throughout. Also, a trick is not to flour the surface or your hands. Wet your hands with water, I GARUNTEE it will work better and come together better. Also it is necessity to cook twice, like someone else mentioned that is the literal meaning to cook twice. This recipe is a ok base, but tweak it like I said and you will actually have traditional and honestly the best biscotti in your life.....
Desobx July 13, 2021
I tried the original version and thought they were too sweet so going to try your tweaks.
About how much butter, Amaretto and almond extract did you use?
Any other mods?
Thanks
Faith28 January 8, 2022
Hi: How much olive oil and Amaretto do you use?
MICHELE L. March 5, 2023
Yes, the water trick works great!
Houriya K. February 13, 2021
Firstly, Italian biscotti uses olive oil, or at least butter in the recipe.
It was too sweet for my liking. Maybe reducing it to 1.5 cups sugar.
The biscotti were difficult to slice due to the whole almonds.
The taste was okay but not wow.
I won't be using this recipe again. There are better ones out there.
pppips January 15, 2021
I just want to say that I made this again today. It's my "go-to" recipe for biscotti, and my husband says it's better than the bakery. It get's better each time I make it, so I'm waiting for the batch that is SO perfect it makes my mouth explode with delicousness!
pppips January 15, 2021
I just want to say that I made this again today. This is my "go-to" recipe for biscotti, and, my husband tells me it's as good as the bakery. It gets better each time I make it, so I'm waiting for the time when it's SO good that it makes my mouth explode with deliciousness!!!!
pppips February 5, 2020
Great recipe. A little messy, but easy to deal with. This recipe is the TRUE Italian biscotti.
Carolyb T. February 28, 2019
I wanted to make Biscotti and tried a different recipe and they were to soft. This recipe is amazing the only thing I changed was I cut the almond amount in half... I baked them at 350 for 40 min and the came out perfect I also sliced them and baked each side for 15 minutes they turned out amazing!!!
LorrieB October 23, 2018
Just beginning to embark on making biscotti and this was my 3rd recipe. I will say, so far, as far as texture and flavor, this may well be my favorite. Because it did not have a temp, I used the temps in other recipes, so I did it at 375 for 25 mins. Though I stuck very closely to all ingredients listed, I did a few tiny tweaks, e.g., added 2 tbs. of canola oil, omitted the orange zest, did not brush with a beaten egg either. I also chopped the almonds (did whole in another recipe, too hard to cut). These turned out GORGEOUS and were the most professional looking I have made so far. Things I'll do differently next time: will cut down on the sugar to 3/4 cup of the white. While they are not too sweet as written, I like them even less sweet. One more thing--translated "biscotti" means 'twice baked.' I lowered the oven down to 300 and cooked these twice, 20 mins. after slicing an laying on one side, flipped them over and baked another 20 on the other side. Then turned the oven off and left them in another 15 mins. If they let me put a photo here, I would-they look fantastic and the house smells AHHH MAZING!! Even with little tweaks, this is the real deal. (Re: the sticky dough. Having had such a huge mess on my hands with the last two recipes, I decided this time, I'm not using my hands to squeeze this batter. I thoroughly 'kneaded' with my rubber spatula incorporating all the flour mixture very thoroughly. Then, turned out each 'ball' onto a floured surface with floured hands. I decided on my last tries, I lost too much batter with what remained on my hands, and too much flour getting it off!)
Lindsay-Jean H. January 3, 2018
Hi all - I found her recipe on her blog here: http://foodblogga.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-make-traditional-italian-almond.html It looks like she bakes them at 350° F.
pppips February 5, 2020
Thank you for checking that out.
MICHELE L. December 24, 2017
A fine recipe. I've been looking for something that has the texture of Semifreddi's biscotti, and this is very close. The temp was missing from the recipe. So I baked them for 30 minutes at 325, and did 1 hour at 200 for the second bake. Delightful!
Rhonda35 December 22, 2017
Food Blogga has not chimed in to guide users of this recipe, but 350 degrees is a good temp to use and the egg wash is brushed on right before the logs go into the oven. :-)
MB November 9, 2016
Yes....please say what temp!
Phyllis March 17, 2015
Please post your oven temperature.
Kgiersch February 4, 2015
Excellent recipie! So delicious. My only thought is maybe too many almonds. I halved the recipie, but I was left with about 1/4 cup almonds that refused to stick with the rest of the dough.
Sagegreen August 22, 2010
I have wanted a fool-proof recipe like this. Thank you. This is on my fall baking list!