Christmas Baking - Hazelnut Biscotti

Ok, so last year we were really skint and I had to do homemade gifts for everyone, they got this Biscotti and Amaretti Biscuits.

The Amarettis were a total failure, but I got a thumbs up for these.

And so here they are again...

This is a basic recipe that I found in this cookbook:


I love it because the basic recipe has only 5 ingredients and is really versatile.

You cream some butter/margarine with some sugar.

Until it looks like this..


What makes you think I went a bit overboard...

... I'm not sure that my little handheld mixer is going to cope with a job of this magnitude!

Add eggs one at a time, mixing in between.

Then you add in flour and baking powder and the basic recipe is finished!

But this is where things can start to get interesting...

I've added cinnamon to this, brandy essence to to butter mixture...

...and I'm adding in hazelnuts!

By the way, chopping/crushing these was the hardest part of the recipe!

Mix!
Mix!
Mix!

Then, if you're me, and the mixer you own isn't up to the job, you haul out a wooden spoon and apply some elbow grease...

 Roll out into sausages...

Place in oven tray - or on baking sheet, whatever is handy - and flatten to about 2cm thick.

WHOOPS!

You are then meant to bake it for 10 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius. For Biscotti however, I bake for 15 minutes on about 160 - you don't want the edges to get too crispy before the middles are cooked through.

But they are NOT meant to spread like this.

I added a heck of alot of flour to the remaining mixture to form a stiffer dough, which then baked much better.

Let the flattened loaves cool a bit (like half an hour or so...)

Then you slice them up...

And you layer them in the oven pans and put them back in the now-turned-off oven to dry out like you would rusks.

You can speed up this process by putting the oven onto it's lowest heat setting and using the fan-forced option if you have it.

Mine died on me.

It's sad.

Thank you to Liana for lending me her mixer - the beaters fit mine would you believe!

Again, if you want the recipe contact me...