Almond Orange Cardamom Biscotti Cookies

Almond orange cardamom biscotti – a great cookie to dunk into your morning coffee or wrap as a Christmas gift. After all, a personal gift will go a long way this year.⁠
Originally the biscotti cookies are made without the butter. This is what makes them super hard. Also, as the name suggests, the cookies are baked twice, which makes them even harder.

Historically, the cookies were prepared to accompany people on long journeys since they had a very long shelf life. However, these days, or should I say this whole year, we are more or less quarantined at home and can’t travel much. But also, we don’t need to make cookies to sit in the cookie jar for months, so we will be making these almond orange biscotti slightly less hard than the original version. To accomplish this, we add some butter to the dough.

Making the Almond Orange Cardamom Biscotti

Biscotti are relatively easy to make, and it does not take much time either. Most of the time needed is baking time.

The dough is made by simply mixing all the ingredients and forming a dense, somewhat sticky mass. The dough is then divided in half, shaping each piece into a log, and brushed with the egg wash. The logs are now ready for baking.

Notes on the Baking

Biscotti, as I already mentioned, are baked twice. The first bake is the most essential. The cookies should be baked just as they start to take on a golden color. Then they should be taken out of the oven and cooled just a bit, around 20 minutes, before cutting them with a sharp serrated knife. The cookies should be cut slightly on a diagonal so that their width is about 1cm (0.4in).

If you take the biscotti out of the oven too early, their interior will be too soft. This will smear the cookie while cut and make it denser. Also, the color of the cookie will be pale, which will not improve with the second bake.

The second bake is to dry the moisture out of the cookies and make them crispy. There are two options for the second bake.

1. Place the cut biscotti standing up on the baking sheet with about 1cm (0.4in) of space between. This way the air can circulate and the moisture from the cookies can escape easily.
2. Place them, cut side down, on a cooling rack and bake, rotating the cookies halfway through.

Now you may ask what the difference is? Well, mostly in how the cookies look. With option one, the cookies will have a darker crust, and the sides will be lighter in color. While with option two, the sides of the biscotti will also take on color and be more in line with the cookie crust. This is more of a personal preference, so whichever option you fancy better, do that by all means.

Serving the Biscotti

The almond orange cardamom biscotti are usually served with some freshly brewed coffee, tea, or dessert wine. I find myself eating them in the afternoon when the crisis of hunger hits.

They are also a great Christmas gift. Just place the cookies in a bag or a nice glass or metal cookie jar. Add some ribbon and a personalized message, and you are all set for Christmas with a nice personal gift.

5 from 1 vote

Almond orange cardamom biscotti

Almond orange cardamom biscotti – a great cookie to dunk into your morning coffee or tea. It makes for a nice personal Christmas gift as well.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Resting Time20 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Servings 38 biscotti

Calories: 70.1 kcal

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Equipment & Tools

• Baking sheet; parchment paper
• Kitchen scale
• Stand mixer
• Serrated knife

INGREDIENTS

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 125 g almonds (toasted, very roughly chopped)
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• ⅛ tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cardamom (freshy ground)
• 130 g sugar (superfine, unrefined)
• 1 orange zest (organic)
• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract (Nielsen-Massey)
• 1 tsp Grand Marnier (optional)
• 1 tbsp egg whites
• 50 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• demerrara sugar (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Gather all the ingredients.

  Preheat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Toast the almonds for 5 minutes in the oven.

  Roughly chop them and set them aside to cool down.
• Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and cardamom in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
• Mix sugar and orange zest in the mortar and pestle until the sugar turns pale orange in color (Note 1).
• In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter and sugar/zest mix until evenly incorporated, light and fluffy. Scrape the sides as needed.
• Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until well incorporated scraping the sides as needed.
• On the lowest speed, add the flour to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until there are no dry flour bits visible in the bowl.

  Add the almonds and mix on the lowest speed for several revolutions until most of the almonds are incorporated into the dough.
• Dust the clean working surface with the flour. Turn the dough onto the working surface and pat it together into one cohesive mass.

  Divide in half and form a log of around 26cm (10in) in length with about 3cm (1.2in) in diameter from each piece.

  Place the kitchen ruler on top of the log and gently press down until the log flattens out so that its height is about 1.5cm (½in). Do the same process for the second log (Note 2)
• Lightly brush the top of the logs with the egg white and sprinkle with some demerara sugar.
• Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes at 175ºC (350ºF) or until the biscotti are starting to turn on light golden color.
• Take out from the oven and cool on the kitchen counter for 20 minutes.

  Once cooled, carefully transfer the logs onto a cutting board.

  Using a sharp serrated knife cut the logs crosswise, slightly on the diagonal, into 1.5cm (½in) wide slices.
• Option 1: Place the cut biscotti back on the baking sheet, standing up, and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through.

  Option 2: Place the cut biscotti, cut sides down, on a cooling rack. Bake them for another 12 minutes. Flip each cookie on the other side and bake for another 12 minutes, or until golden in color.
• Cool to room temperature before serving.
• Store cooled cookies in an airtight container for 2 weeks.

NOTES

Updated: December, 2021.

1. Rubbing sugar and orange zest will help release the natural oils from the orange, which will in turn flavor the sugar. If you don’t have mortar and pestle you can rub the sugar and the orange zest between your fingers.
2. Note that the kitchen ruler should be longer than the log. You may have to do this several times lifting the ruler up after each shape. You can also do this with your hands, but note that the logs will not look as uniform.

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