Almonds in the pre-biscotti stage
The Northeast, once again, is facing a major snowstorm. It's a once a week event lately and people's nerves are frayed. But if you ask me, there is nothing a good cookie can't cure. So for your reading and eating pleasure, here now Traditional Italian Almond Biscotti and Kitchen Sink Cookies.
The biscotti are from an excellent NPR story, Not All Biscotti Are Created Equal (how true). Susan Russo, author of Food Blogga, and NPR contributor, wrote a terrific article on the many faces of biscotti. They all look terrific and I plan to try all of them, but I wanted to start with the most traditional to see if they could take me back to my Italian roots (spoiler alert: they do).
A slight difference in the baking method of these biscotti is that they don't really go through a second baking like most biscotti recipes. Instead, after the first baking and cooling, they are cut, placed back on the baking sheets, and sent back into the turned off (still warm) oven for 30-60 minutes.
Jam-packed with whole toasted almonds, with the fragrance of fresh orange zest, and baked super crisp, these biscotti reminded me very much of the cookies my Grandmother used to make and the ones I loved from my first trip to Italy.
Print Biscotti Recipe Here
From delicate biscotti to hearty Kitchen Sink cookies. As an aside, I must share with you that I really detest the name of these cookies because it conjures up visions of just throwing in whatever you've got laying around and that is so not the case. These cookies come from the Martha Stewart cookie collection and since I didn't create them I'll just have to put up with the name.
If you don't think about it too much, you can might be able to convince yourself that these babies are actually good for you. What with the oats, raisins, pecans, and dried apricots they are at the same time chewy, sweet, and nutty. Throw in the semi-sweet chocolate and they become rich and luxurious. The recipe supplies a nice variation to skip the oats and add in some coconut to transform these into tropical delights.
The recipe calls for forming the dough into 2" balls, which I did, but I felt like they were a tad too big. I know, right now some of you are saying to yourself, "is she kidding? a cookie too big?" Yes, there is such a thing.
A very satisfying cookie,
oozing with chocolate, raisins, and apricots!
So I might not like the name but I really like the cookie, and I guess that's all that counts!
Bake up one of these cookies the next time you are staring down a snowstorm and you'll come through just fine.
Print Kitchen Sink Cookies Recipe Here
