We used to do a monthly wine club and with each month’s wines, we included a recipe. We featured Vin Santo one month and a biscotti recipe was a natural addition. As you can gather by now, a traditional and simple recipe was in order. As a good son, I enrolled my father in the club and he took to this recipe – very similar to his Italian mother’s which wasn’t written down – and perfected it. As an engineer, be assured it has been tested hundreds of times and is perfectly accurate in every detail. Thanks, Dad!

Traditional Biscotti
½ cup melted, unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 ½ Tbsp vanilla extract
(or 1 ½ Tbsp. anise extract or flavoring)
5 large eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup blanched, toasted almonds

To toast the almonds
Preheat oven to 400. Spread the almonds in one layer on a cookie/baking sheet. Toast until golden: 6-10 minutes.

Biscotti
Turn oven down to 350. In a mixer, combine melted butter, sugar and vanilla then mix. Add eggs and mix well. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well then add toasted almonds. The dough will be pliable but on the runny side. On a hard surface sprinkled with flour, divide the dough into 4 equal balls. Form into a “loaf” oblong in shape and put on cookie sheets (two per sheet). The dough will rise quite a bit so start the “loaf” long – about 6 inches. Bake the loaves for 40 minutes. While loaves are still warm out of the oven, slice them into individual, equal pieces. Place pieces on a cookie sheet and toast until the biscotti just start to brown (10 minutes). Turn the pieces over and bake another 10 minutes.