Five-Spice Biscotti

Sydney Mike's Note:

The recipe for this interesting biscotti was found in the 1997 cookbook, Vegetarian Planet.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 40

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons five-spice powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ cup unsalted butter , melted
• 3 1⁄3; cups unbleached white flour (or a little more)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups whole almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F & grease two baking sheets.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar & spices, then add melted butter & stir well.
3. In another bowl, mix together 3 1/3 cups of flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt & almonds.
4. Add half of this flour mixture to egg mixture, stirring well with a wooden spoon.
5. Add 2nd half of flour mixture & stir until a smooth dough forms, adding a tablespoon or two of flour if the dough seems too tacky. With floured hands, you should be able to form a small piece of dough into a ball.
6. Form half of the dough into a large log & place it on one of the greased baking sheets, then flatten the log until it is 5-6 inches wide & 10 inches long. Do the same with the 2nd half of the dough, using the second baking sheet.
7. Bake the logs for 35 minutes, until logs are firm but give slightly when pressed with a finger.
8. Remove baking sheets from the oven & reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
9. While logs are still warm, use a large spatula to carefully transfer them to a cutting board, & cut them crosswise on a slight diagonal, into 1/2-inch-thick slices.
10. Lay the cookies on their sides on the baking sheets & bake them 15 minutes more.
11. Remove from the oven & let cookies cool on a wire rack.
12. Store in an airtight container, up to 2 weeks.

Reviews

[Annacia]

I love the flavor of the spice mix and the texture. I had a problem with the slicing as each almond that I encountered would cause the cookie to shatter instead of slice. I had someone come by and left the remaining unsliced cookie loaf on the cutting board for about 4 hrs. When I went back to it it was much better to cut when fully cool. I would make this recipe again but not with whole almonds, I think sliced almonds would be nicer but this is only my preference. I also need to say that I made a 12 amount but there wasn't enough dough to make 12 cookies anywhere near the 5-6 inch wide started in the recipe, mine were about 3-3 1/2 inches wide which is perfectly fine with me but if you want cookies of that size plan on getting fewer of them.