Almond orange cardamom biscotti

5 from 2 votes

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

Cook Time50

Resting Time20

Total Time1 40

Servings 38 biscotti

Calories: 70.1 kcal

Equipment & Tools

Baking sheet; parchment paper
Kitchen scale
Stand mixer
Serrated knife

INGREDIENTS

Metric - US Customary

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.

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.
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.

NUTRITION*