Soft Biscotti Recipe

Soft Italian Biscotti Recipe

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Traditional Italian biscotti is a twice baked cookie that is hard and best when dunked into coffee. My grandmother made a different type- a soft Italian biscotti, one that is soft on the inside but dense and delicious when dipped in a glaze, and decorated with non-perils.

Soft Italian Biscotti

We made these for Easter when I was younger but now my husband and I enjoy these for a light breakfast or an afternoon pick-me-up. I use vanilla extract but you can substitute anise extract if you prefer these more traditional.

Soft Biscotti Recipe

Name: Soft Italian Biscotti Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 36
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: Cookies; 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature; ½ cup sugar; 3 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/8 cup milk; ½ tsp baking soda; 3 cups flour; 2 tsp vanilla extract; icing; 2 cups powdered sugar; 4 Tablespoons milk; ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients

Cookies

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 cup milk

½ tsp baking soda

3 cups flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

icing

2 cups powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 400.

Line baking sheets with silicon mats and set aside

In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. (about 3 minutes)

Add eggs, milk & vanilla and mix to combine.

Add all the dry ingredients and blend together.

Use about one tablespoon of dough and roll out into a rope and then twist into the desired shape.

Bake for about 10 minutes.

While the cookies cool, mix the icing.

Dip the cooled cookie tops in the icing (will be a bit runny) and top with sprinkles if desired.

Let icing dry completely before storing an an airtight container.

Makes about 3 dozen.

We roll our cookies into a twist shape just because it is a better shape for dunking into my coffee. You can easily roll them into balls or even a snail shell shape as well. Trust me this is one recipe that you will make all the time.

These Italian biscotti cookies freeze well prior to glazing the cookies, simply defrost at room temperature until ready to use and then glaze the cookies. Be sure to wear a cute apron to protect your clothes from icing drips.

BAKING TIP **Be aware the coloring of the non-perils will spread if left in the glaze overnight so If you are making them for a shower or birthday party, glaze the morning of the event.

Happy Baking!

How to Bake in Batches to Make the Most of Your Baking Time

One way to handle your holiday baking is to bake in batches, then freeze and store for the big day. You can do this successfully over a couple of weeks with batch baking and batch preparing.

The biggest thing to remember is to only try a few different types of things in one day, or focus on just one type of baked good in one day. For example, you might want to bake all your quick breads in one day. Another day you can prepare all your cookie dough. Yet another time, you can bake all your fruit pies and so forth. This process makes the most of the time you have, the space you have, and your skill level.

Be Prepared

Don’t try batch baking without a plan of action. Be sure to write down your plans in advance so that you are sure you have enough time to do everything that you’ve planned. To figure out a basic time line, add up the prep time, the baking time for each oven full, and then multiply that by 1.5 to account for a little extra issues happening. Then you should be sure that you have enough time.

Get Everything Ready to Go

Your kitchen should be spotless when you start, and ensure that you have all the ingredients and appliances necessary to make each item ready to go. If you know, for example, that today you’ll be using about 10 pounds of flour, consider using a large bowl to hold the flour so you can easily spoon the flour into the measuring cup, flatten off over the bowl, without having to get into the bag over and over which usually means spillage.

Clean as You Go

Fill your sink immediately with hot soapy water so you can clean as you go. You will want to wash your mixing dishes and other utensils during the baking process so that you can use them again. There’s no point in totally destroying your kitchen as you batch bake, and you don’t have to. Set out a draining board, fill the sink with hot soapy water, and wash as you go. There are many opportunities during baking to wash a couple of dishes, and this will make the clean-up faster, and the process more organized.

All Day Batch Baking

You can set aside a day for batch baking such as a Saturday. Plan for all day baking, which usually entails 8 to 10 hours of work. Ensure that any other chores are done, including the shopping, and the kitchen is clean and ready prior to baking day. It’s important to organize your recipes with some logic behind them. For example, if you need dough to rise, start that first, so that it can be rising as you are preparing other things such as cookie dough or pie crusts. Both can be put in the refrigerator or freezer after preparation while you bake the bread, then baked after you bake the bread while the oven is still hot and ready.

Read each recipe that you plan to use and pay close attention to certain clues. For example, if an ingredient requires a cold kitchen, you’ll want to start that first. If something takes an hour to bake like banana bread, you can use that hour to mix other batter, dough, crust, filling and so forth that you can store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake them.

Organize the kitchen in stations. You will want a station for each type of baked good that you want to create. It’s a lot easier to lay out four pie crusts in pie tins, ready for fillings, than to do one at a time. As much as you can do for one type of thing in one run, do so. A bread making station is also essential. It needs to be a place you can freely flour the counter space, and easily clean up.

Be careful about combining batches in one recipe. If you have a cookie recipe that uses measures instead of weights, it’s better not to do them in more than one batch at a time, but you don’t need to clean the bowl between each batch that you make. Make the lightest type of batch first; for example, make sugar cookie dough before you make chocolate chip cookies, before you make peanut butter cookies. Consider the flavor, the ingredients, and everything before making the batches so that you can wash as little as possible.

The important thing about all day batch cooking is that you can choose to make only one type of baked good or you can make a number of different baked goods depending on how many people you need to feed.

Don’t try to stuff your oven too full. At most, you’ll want to cook two pies, four loaves of bread, and one large sheet of cookies at a time in one oven. Putting too many things in one oven can drastically change the temperature settings. Also, putting a dry item with a moist item in the oven at the same time can change the temperature needs. Read directions, plan ahead, and you’ll be fine.

Soft Italian Biscotti Recipe

Yield: 36

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

A soft Italian biscotti recipe that is easy to make and tastes just like Nonna's.