A lot of these baking challenges are inspired by episodes of the Great British Baking Show and this one is as well! In season 3, episode 2, the first challenge involved making 24 biscotti cookie in 2 hours. When I was watching the bakers work on their recipes, I was intrigued by the 2 step baking process and knew one day I would want to try it. I am a slow and meticulous baker whenever I try a new recipe. I definitely surpassed the 2 hour time limit of the show. The recipe I used was this one from delish.com.
The first step to making these biscotti involved toasting a cup of almonds on a small baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. While the almonds were in the oven, I prepared two baking sheets with parchment paper and cooking spray and then set them aside.
Then, in a large bowl, I combined the dry ingredients which included flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, I combined the wet ingredients which were eggs, almond extract, AND vanilla extract and the two types of sugars – brown and granulated. The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of almond extract but because I love vanilla extract, I used half a teaspoon of each vanilla and almond extract. Once the wet ingredients and sugars were combined until smooth, I poured them into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mixed everything together until they were just combined.
After the 15 minutes were up, I took the almonds out of the oven and coarsely chopped them and then folded them into the dough until all was combined. Then, I split the dough into two sections and placed each on one of the prepared baking sheets.
I formed each section into two long, flat logs. For the first bake, they went into the oven for 15 minutes until they were golden brown. This is a step that I wish I had added a few minutes too. I think my biscotti didn’t become the proper texture in this phase which later affected the final outcome (although not too drastically) that I’ll explain in a little bit.
Once they came out, I carefully transferred the partially cooked dough to a cutting board. With a large knife I cut the biscotti on a diagonal into thin, 1/2 inch slices. Each piece was then placed back on the baking sheet and baked for another 10 minutes. They were then flipped to the other side to bake for another 10 minutes. This was the stage that I felt was affected by my mistake in the earlier part. I think if I had added a few more minutes to the first stage to have the dough a little more cooked, it wouldn’t have taken so long to get the proper, crispy, biscotti texture. I had to add several minutes – about five or so – to finally get to the right golden brown crunch.
Once they were fully baked, I let them rest and cool down on a rack for about an hour. After the hour passed, I melted about a cup of chocolate chips. Using a knife, I spread a nice layer of smooth chocolate on the bottom of about half of the biscotti. I let them cool even further on the baking rack for the chocolate to harden.
Next came what is always my favorite part – the tasting! I made myself a nice cup of tea with a little teaspoon of sugar. I tasted one dipped in chocolate – and it was nice and sweet with a good nutty flavor from the almonds. I tried the plain one by dipping it in my tea and it was a perfect combination as the biscotti softened up a little bit in the hot liquid.
This bake was a little time consuming with all of the stages that are involved, but overall they turned out delicious! I would love to have a tea party or host some friends or family for a fun dinner with coffee and biscotti as the dessert. I definitely recommend this recipe to anyone who’s interested. If you try it out, let me know.
As always, if you have a baking challenge you would like me to try, be sure to send them my way! I’m always up for suggestions.
Sending you all lots of love,
Alanna
every so often... 
Leave a comment