Biscotti. You know, those long, tooth breaking fingers of biscuit often sold in coffee shops wrapped in cellophane. Now, to be fair, they are supposed to be that hard; they are made for dunking in your latte or, if you are really posh, your glass of vin santo after dinner.
Biscotti – Italian meaning twice cooked – can trace its history back to Ancient Rome where they were carried by the Roman soldiers on their military campaigns. Similar to the hard tack found on British naval vessels of old, the Roman biscotti must have been pretty unpalatable. Made with a simple dough, baked to cook it and baked a second time to thoroughly dry it out, biscotti had an almost indefinite shelf life.
By the time of the Renaissance period in Italy, Tuscan bakers began to spiff up the lowly biscotti, adding almonds, anise and a variety of other ingredients. Different regions across the Italian peninsula added their own local twists resulting in the huge variety of biscotti available to this day. Biscotti were elevated from basic sustenance for Roman soldiers to the sweet treat we all know today.
I was asked recently to make some biscotti, something I realized I hadn’t done for some years. I had forgotten just how incredibly simple they are to make, and how very delicious.
My go to recipe has usually been from a briliant pastry chef in SF, called Emily Luccetti and calls for almonds, anise seeds and citrus zest. For this request though, I wanted something different. So, I consulted a web site called, Serious Eats whose recipes from contributing chefs are invariably trustworthy. Not something that can be said of many recipes found on the web!
Lucy Baker, contributing chef on Serious Eats, posted a recipe for Bacon Chocolate Chip Biscotti. Bacon and chocolate chips? Seriously? I was intrigued enough to give it a try and boy, I am glad I did! Buttery sweet biscuit studded with morsels of chocolate and slightly salty bacon bits. They were wildly popular with the boys I made them for.
As I mentioned before, biscotti are often tooth breaking hard and that is by design. Because of the butter in these biscotti they never get that hard. Instead they have a softer texture which means you don’t need coffee or wine to eat them. But that’s no excuse for not having coffee or wine, is it?
As impressive as they are to look at and as delicious as they are to eat, biscotti are amazingly simple to make. I’ve often said, the only thing easier than making biscotti is getting a scoop of ice cream from the freezer. As to flavors and sticking with the chocolate chip theme, I’ve made these substituting grated orange zest for the bacon (as shown in the photo at the top of this post). I’ve also added chopped crystalized ginger; ginger being my wife’s favorite. Next time you are at a bakery, check to see what flavor profiles they use in their baked goods for ideas on what you might like in your biscotti.
The recipe below is inspired by Lucy Baker’s Bacon and chocolate Chip Biscotti on Serious Eats.
Enjoy!
Biscotti
Ingredients
- 5 Strips of Bacon – *See note below
- 10 oz (2 cups, 285g) All Purpose (Plain) Flour
- 1-1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 Tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup (5-1/4oz, 150g) Sugar
- 4 oz (1 stick, 113g) unsalted Butter – soft room temperature
- 2 Large Eggs – lightly beaten
- 1 cup (6oz, 170g) Chocolate Chips – semi sweet
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) with the rack in the middle position .
- Cook the bacon – not too crispy. Cool and finely chop.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In the bowl of a food mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar at medium high speed until light and fluffy.
- Gradually beat in the eggs, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until barely combined. There should still be some raw flour visible.
- Add the bacon bits and chocolate chips. Continue to mix about 20-30 seconds to distribute the add-ins.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and gather the dough to form a cohesive mass.
- Divide the dough in two and roll each piece into a log 10" (25cm) long and about 2" (5cm) diameter. You need to work quite quickly here. As the sugar hydrates it will make the dough very loose and sticky. Don't worry if your dough logs are not perfect, the biscotti will still taste fabulous.
- Transfer the logs to the prepared cookie sheet at least 3" (8cm) apart. Flatten the logs slightly.
- Bake 25-30 minutes until the dough is a light golden brown.
- Let the baked logs cool on the sheet pan. They are very soft when hot and need to cool before they can be handled without falling apart.
- Cut the logs on a bias about 3/4" (18mm) wide. A serrated bread knife is best for this. (You can't really bake those stubby little end pieces a second time so they are a little treat for the baker).
- Return the biscotti to the cookie sheet, cut side up and bake another 10 minutes. Flip the biscotti over to expose the second cut side and bake another 5-10 minutes. **See note below. You can control the crispness of the biscotti by how long you bake it the second time; the longer it bakes, the drier and crisper the biscotti will be.
- Let the biscotti cool completely before serving with a nice cup of tea, coffee or white wine. Remember, biscotti were created to last a long time. These will keep a week or more in an airtight container, if they last that long!
Notes
1. If you have a wire cooling rack, place it in the sheet pan and the cut biscotti on the rack, right side up. Bake for the recommended 15-20 minutes or to your preferred degree of crispness. Raising the biscotti above the surface of the sheet pan allows air to circulate around the cookies and prevents them from over browning on the bottom.
2. Double up the sheet pan (place a second sheet pan under the first). The slight air gap between the sheet pans will insulate the the biscotti and prevent over browning.
