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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Great Expectations

It's really hard to work against expectations.

If I said "biscotti," you might think about the teeth-chipping, ridiculously hard cookies served at your local Starbucks.  (No real offense to Starbucks--it has its place.  In airports, primarily.)  It's typically a long, slender cookie that takes a dunking in a hot beverage to become really good.

Or, even more menacingly, it is a cookie coated so liberally with chocolate that your fingers are smeared before it even approaches a hot beverage.

I'm not a fan of either option, but when you tell people you've made biscotti, they expect one of those two things.  Whereas these biscotti will delight your senses--I've never smelled dough quite this fragrant, I kid you not--but they are round, a little soft and look nothing like what people have come to expect.


I'll stand by the authenticity of the consistency and shape of these cookies, which are adapted from a recipe by Lidia Bastianich.  The flavors?  They just happen to be what excited me on Sunday morning.  A batch went to the neighbors who have been nice enough to lend us their snowblower these last few snowy weeks, and another batch came to my office, where no one knew what to make of them until they had one, at which point they were sold.

Because my Sunday was busier than expected, I made the dough that day and refrigerated it overnight.  The result was very hard and very cold, which meant that I could roll it out and then skip the step of returning it to the refrigerator before baking.  If you do it this way, just roll it out quickly and pop the cookies into the oven.

Orange-Toasted Pecan Biscotti
Technique from Lidia's Italy in America by Lidia Bastianich

1 large orange, zested and juiced
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped coarsely
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. lemon juice

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  In a stand mixer, beat together the sugar and butter until pale yellow.  Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs individually, mixing well after each addition.

Add the vanilla, lemon and orange juice and zest and mix just to combine, then add the nuts.  Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and securely cover with plastic wrap.  Put the bowl in the refrigerator for at least one hour or overnight.

After the dough is chilled, divide it into four chunks and roll each out into a log about ten inches long on a floured surface.  If you have only chilled the dough for an hour, it will probably be soft by this point--you will need to return it to the refrigerator for about twenty minutes.  If you chilled the dough overnight, you can skip this step and cut each roll into half-inch slices.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the slices on cookie sheets covered with parchment paper.  Bake for eighteen to twenty minutes, switching out the cookie sheets halfway through.  The cookies will be done when pale golden brown.

Makes approximately sixty cookies.

34 comments:

  1. Love the citrusy orange in there.I'm sure it smelled wonderful!Lovely recipe :).Your previous post inspired my new post!

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  2. Now this is my type of biscotti...looks fantastic!

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  3. Ha, your post is the second one I've read today bashing Starbuck's ho-hum baked goods. I am not a fan...yes, stay in the airports! Your biscotti cookies are brilliant! And it makes 60 of those suckers? Nice.

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  4. I've never made biscotti yet as I don't like the jaw-breaker. Your recipe has me convinced to give them a go, sound great!

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  5. I would rather have your bisotti any day than those hard ones you mentioned. I have stopped having those after almost breaking my teeth on several occasions. Seems like biscotti is about to make a come back to my life. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Bookmarking this.

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  6. I am in the same page as you are... who wants rock hard cookies. ***all my first attempt at making cookies must have been biscotti then. LOL** My first attempt at cake mix biscotti is the first ones I ever liked. This version looks just as yummy! I have to check out the recipe in Lidia's book as well. :)

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  7. I do like cookies that will withstand a dunk in tea or coffee-but I think some biscotti is so hard they are made to hold there shape when sitting in tea overnight! The described texture of these is definitely more welcome than the standard biscotti. Also, I like that they have orange zest in them. Saving this recipe, thanks!

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  8. Your description of these biscotti have me sold. And if they are from Lidia, you know they are authentic! YUM.

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  9. I love how you've re-imagined biscotti! Cookies seems much of accessible, and I love the combo of orange and pecans. Love this recipe!

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  10. I have been holding back from making biscotti because I am worried about what the outcome can be. With this recipe of yours, I think I can give a try and hopefully they will turn out as lovely as yours. Orange gives an amazing citrusy taste to cookies and pecan for the crunched and suppose the taste must have been heaven.

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  11. Ohhh, I LOVE the orange in these cookies! Perfect!

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  12. These look and sound like my kind of cookie/biscotti! Like them crispy and easy to dunk in my afternoon tea. Love the addition of the orange!

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  13. these cookies sound delicious,I'm citrus lover,I'm sure i would love this cookies,Yuumy :)
    Ridwan

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  14. Oh, I think these are the perfect dunking cookies! I love pecans in cookies! Lin xx

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  15. I'm a big fan of Lidia and citrus in baking. Sold!

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  16. Delicious! I've made biscotti (in what I consider the traditional shape) and it is NOTHING like store bought....in this case -you're absolutely right - homemade is best!

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  17. I have made biscotti once and it didn't go well...but I love the cookie shape and really must get to work on making these VERY soon.

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  18. Wow---I like this technique b/c I hate to bake it, remove it from the oven, slice it and return to baking. Also love these flavors!

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  19. I have definitely stereotyped biscotti to be exactly how you described it! This, however, sounds one million times better. I wish all biscotti were like yours!

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  20. I don't like the very hard biscotti either! I am somewhere in the middle. Those ones would go perfectly with a hot cup of tea!

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  21. These soft biscotti are for sure perfect with the tea I am drinking now ;-))

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  22. mmm I love the ideas of these! And not having to bake then cut up all the normal biscotti pieces!

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  23. Actually, I have never tried biscotti because the idea of breaking my teeth on a sweet never sounded appealing. However, these sound and look wonderful.

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  24. So funny - I thought I'm the only one who complains about hard biscotti since majority of biscotti that I tried are pretty hard. Soon I will be too worried about my teeth falling off (wait I'm not that old yet. heehee). Anyway, these sounds great! It seems too much work for me to make them from scratch (this is non-baker talking, so don't take it seriously)... I wish I can have some of yours. :-)

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  25. These look great!
    I do like biscotti to be on the softer side, hence the dunking. ;)

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  26. I am really not a fan of the biscotti you're talking about at the start of this post...and for the reasons you mentioned. I see blog posts about them and I'm like 'eh.' But yours look super cookie-rific and delicious :) May have to try these!

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  27. Your biscotti sound very good and I can't wait to try the recipe.

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  28. I LOVE hard biscotti, I'm not too fond of Starbucks, and these look wonderful. Doesn't "biscotto" mean "cookie" anyway? :)

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  29. I truly wish I could have one with my tea right now... Thanks for giving us this recipe!

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  30. Orange and Pecans! Mmmm.. Love the combination.

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  31. Orange and nuts - a great combination! These sound delicious.

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  32. Yum! The perfect morning treat. And how nice of you to treat the neighbors! I'd shovel snow for those cookies too :)

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