Biscotti Journey

Only 3 Tries!

Biscotti is one of my favorite things to make because of all of the steps. First you make the dough, then you shape it into football looking logs, bake it until it gets crusty, slice it, bake it again, both . sides, until almost "dry". If you bake it until it is completely dry, you wil end up with hard as a rock biscotti because it keeps baking, even after you take it out of the oven. There should be a bit of a "sponge" in the middle that barely bounces back.A bit of a process but the results are worth it.

No matter how many times I make the same recipe, such as this one, there seems to be a slight difference each time in the baking process that I need to watch for, more often than not, which is the baking time.

As for the recipe, I converted it 3 times; 1 all butter, 2 half butter and half oil and the final successful recipe for me was all vegetable oil. It made for a much softer biscotti, one that you could bit into. I found that the butter version, although tasty, was had as a rock even with less baking. Why? There is water in the butter which evaporates whereas vegetable oil is all fat. The fat makes the biscotti more tender, less dry and less likely to become rock hard. Worked for me! Next time I would like to try olive oil and also avocado oil for taste comparison. added fat makes the biscottibecome rock hard.

Bake Time: My biscotti was in the oven at 400 degrees in a convection oven to start and after 45 minutes, the top was still too soft to slice. It seemed crazy to me so I lowered the temperature to 375 to allow the center to cook more as the outside was getting golden too fast. And then started to remember the old saying, "patience is a virtue".

The internal temperature finally hit 192 degrees and the top was finally firm enough, with a slight "spring" and so I knew I would be able to cut into it. The edges were dry and so at that point, I let it rest outside the oven for 10 minutes, standard procedure for biscotti, then I sliced it and back into the oven it went.

WHAT DID I LEARN?

1. Baking times like recipes are guides and not written in stone. At high altitude, factors such as dough size, pan material, oven performance, humidity, and temperature all affect baking time.

2. Double pan your biscotti to prevent burning on the bottom as sometimes, it stays in th oven a lot longer than you may have planned.

   Keep your logs at about 10 oz. each

   Mine was WAY TOO BIG and I ended up with 6" long biscotti.

   I doubled the recipe but only split the logs into 2 and they SREAPD quickly and a lot which is why they came out so long, but the height was good regardless and they were delicious, lemon & almond.

What is the ONE constant I always learn about high altitude baking?

Watch the dough, not the clock.

I kept it simple with almond extract and lemon zest but other options are:

• sliced almonds, dried tart cherries, or diced apricots and dip in tempered white chocolate

• use lavender sugar and lemon zest

• chocolate chips and chopped pecans

• pistachio

• add a bit of cocoa powder in place of flour