Biscotti and things

These biscotti didn't turn out as I planned. I meant for them to be fluffier, for the dough to remain uniform despite the chopped nuts. When I shaped the dough for baking, it stuck to my hands as if I'd coated them with honey. But even with all of these obstacles, the cookies turned out fine. I give this recipe full credit.

The recipe's origins escape me; some time in college, I wrote it down on an index card and filed it in an olive green box. The original recipe calls for almonds and vanilla extract, but I've riffed on that theme to bake biscotti in chocolate-ginger, chocolate chip, pistachio-cornmeal, cinnamon orange varieties.

My great-aunt Carmon enjoys the double-chocolate variety; I like a plainer version, perhaps with its outer ridge dipped in melted chocolate. The Biscotti Recipe of Mysterious Origin has seen me through tough times! It even saw me through difficulties this weekend.

My mother flew from Kansas to visit our new Portland home on Thursday, and I had grand culinary plans for her stay. I wanted to make a coffee cake for the lazy weekend, and Raymond wanted to cook eggs and bacon for breakfast. I'd envisioned home-made potato soup and cornbread.

What I got was a dead oven. While Raymond cooked breakfast on Saturday morning, it ceased to function, right as Raymond cracked eggs into a skillet. The burners were lifeless, the oven cold. We haven't got a toaster or a microwave yet (due chiefly to laziness) so our only backup is a spasmodic pink Hotpoint mini-oven.

The Hotpoint burns things. (Bagels have caught fire in it on two separate occasions.) That morning, Raymond and I managed some reheated hashbrowns and a rescued-egg frittata, but any subsequent tries in that Hotpoint failed. I burned a coffee cake, which bitterly disappointed me, but my mom said, "Oh, that's fine. I like burned things. I like burned toast the best." She ate some coffee cake like a champ, and she really liked these biscotti. Good old mom. Thanks for being flexible (and for visiting!)

PS: Have you noticed? In a Pickle has a new domain name: www.katesinapickle.com.

Joy! It's like Christmas come early!

Almond biscotti with lemon icing

makes about 2 dozen cookies

• 1/2 cup virgin olive oil
• 1 cup cane sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds (or hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts)
• 1 overflowing tsp. almond extract
• zest of one lemon
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• a pinch of sea salt

Icing

• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1-2 tsp. cream
• 1/2- 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  

Preheat your (working) oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, then cream together the sugar and oil in a large mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and almond extract. Sift together the dry ingredients, then stir the mixture into the wet ingredients. Gently stir in the lemon zest and chopped nuts.

Grease a cookie sheet (foil-lined is optional) and form the batter into two flat "loaves" three inches apart. This can get sticky, and you'll want to flour your hands first. Shape the loaves long and thin -- no taller than three inches or so -- as the batter will spread when it bakes. Bake the biscotti at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Once the loaves are lightly browned on the outside, remove the cookie sheet and, using a sharp, serrated knife, quickly cut each log into a dozen (or so) inch-wide cookies. I use a gentle sawing motion to cut the delicate dough; pressing down on the biscotti seems to create more jagged edges on the cookies.

Flip the freshly cut cookies on their sides and lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Bake the cookies for five minutes per side. Remove the sheet and let the biscotti cool on a baking rack. Turn the oven off. If the cookies aren't completely dry after they've cooled, pop the biscotti back in the still-warm (but off!) oven until they are.

Blend together the icing in a small bowl while the cookies cool. Brush or drizzle a little icing on each biscotti, and wait for the icing to set. I find the icing is easier to drizzle after I warm the bowl for a few seconds.

Store the biscotti in an air-tight container for up to a week, and freeze them, individually wrapped, for up to a month.

If you liked this recipe, you might enjoy:

Chocolate chip biscotti with orange
Candied orange peel with almond
Cashew macadamia nut butter cookies