You should get about 16 slices from each log.

Preheat oven to 180°C or 350°F

140gr. or 2/3

cup white sugar

2

large eggs (whole)

1 tsk. or 1 teas.

best vanilla extract

1½ msk. or 1½ tbls.

of Amaretto liquor

or 1 tsk. or 1 teas.

good quality almond extract

1 tsk. or 1 teas.

baking powder

Large pinch of salt

250gr. or 1 ¾ cups

all purpose flour sifted with the salt and baking powder.

110-120gr or ¾ cup

blanched toasted almonds lightly chopped

or 50/50

almonds and hazelnuts (which I prefer when I am giving these as a gift because it looks nicer.

Assembling the recipe:

In a bowl large enough to take the eggs sugar and eventually the flour. With an electric hand held mixer beat the eggs and sugar until it becomes light, pale in color and forms a ribbon. You should set the timer and beat this on high speed for 5 minutes. If you are using a Kitchenaid mixer it will take less time.

When the eggs and sugar are beaten add the vanilla and almond extracts or the vanilla and Amaretto.
Sieve in the flour containing the baking powder and the salt and fold it into the egg and sugar mix.

The batter will be pretty thick and sticky and thick.

Add the chopped nuts and fold them in.

Take a baking tray or cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment (baking paper) on it and with a rubber spatula scrape out the dough onto the baking sheet trying to form a log about 30 cm. or 1ft long.

If the dough is too sticky - wet your hands – shake off the excess water and try shaping it with your fingers. I find this always messy.

Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and move to a cooling rack and let sit for only 10 minutes.

With a serrated knife cut the log into slices about 1½ cm. or ¾ of an inch thick. Place on baking rack and bake for a further 5 minutes remove rack, turn all the slices over and bake again for another 5 minutes.

The goal is to dry out the biscotti and lightly color them.  You should get about 16 slices from each log.

Notes:

You should keep in mind that the oven should be heated to 180°C or 350°F. I cooked these at 200°C or 400°F and burnt the bottom of the log and to add insult to injury the chocolate tasted scorched after I cut them and toasted the slices. So now I pay a little more attention and they come out just fine.

You bake these twice. The second time is to dry them out, it is this that gives them their long shelf life and to give them a more appealing color.

Like the Chocolate Biscotti recipe these taste great and because you can keep them stored in a plastic container for 3-4 weeks they too will always be available to pull out to eat with a nice cup of hot tea.

They are also dead easy to do. If you are making them as gifts, I suggest that you don’t make more than two recipes at a time because of the dough’s sticky nature but 2 recipes together should give you enough biscotti to make 4 gift packs.