My Mom's Almond Biscotti (2024)

This is my mom’s almond biscotti recipe. It is one of the specialty cookies she makes, among many others! Biscotti are Italian biscuit-like cookies. Translating to “twice-cooked,” biscotti are typically harder in texture, perfect for dipping in coffee. My mom’s biscotti are crunchy, but not as hard as traditional biscotti; they are lighter and less dense. They make for the perfect sweet bite in the afternoon with a cup of tea, or the perfect sweet ending to your day. My favorite part of this recipe is that we didn’t change a thing to “lighten” them up. They are easy to work into your day as-is. I love it!

What you’ll need to make My Mom’s Almond Biscotti

Ok, but first, a picture of my mom and me in our matching Food Network aprons! We can dream, right? I love my mom, isn’t she the cutest?

Ok, sorry… onto the recipe. Here is what you’ll need:

• flour
• baking powder
• baking soda
• sugar
• margarine
• almond extract
• vanilla extract
• eggs
• anise seed
• lemon zest
• salt
• slivered almonds

Again, the best part of my mom and I remaking this recipe is that we didn’t have to change any of the ingredients for this recipe! My mom never shares this recipe, so I feel really special that she is allowing me to share it with all of you!

How to make the dough for my mom’s almond biscotti

First, let’s start by making the cookie dough. It is important to note that this dough is required to be refrigerated overnight before baking. So plan ahead!

When I made this batch, we made the dough late Tuesday afternoon and baked them Wednesday afternoon, so the dough stayed about a full 24 hours covered in the fridge.

Making the dough is pretty easy. For this, I used my KitchenAid stand mixer. Now, I rarely use this thing… like… ever. But also, I don’t bake much. It did come in handy for this recipe though. If you don’t have a stand mixer, a hand mixer works well too!

To start out, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine the ingredients.

In the bottom of your stand mixer bowl, combine the margarine (softened, not melted!), the sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and the vanilla and almond extracts. Mix them until everything is thoroughly combined.

Once they are combined, slowly incorporate the dry ingredients. Then, fold in the almonds (don’t do this part in the mixer, it’s important not to break the almonds up). Then, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge.

How to bake the almond biscotti

It’s important for me to note here that these cookies need to bake twice; “biscotti” literally means “twice cooked.” So, the dough bakes once in a loaf-form, and then it is cut into cookies and baked again quickly. The second bake really serves as a method for toasting the cookies.

Once the dough has been refrigerated overnight, take it out of the fridge and let it sit out for a bit. It doesn’t have to be room temperature, but it shouldn’t be ice cold because it will be hard to work with. We let ours sit out for about 15 minutes before working with it.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 325F.

Grab a large baking sheet and spray it with non-stick cooking spray, like PAM. Then, sprinkle a little flour across the baking sheet. The baking sheet I use for this is huge… it is 15 1/2″ by 21 1/2″ and it’s perfect for making these biscotti. I will show you why later!

If you don’t have as large of a baking sheet, you might need to use two smaller ones.

Rolling out the dough

Add some flour to your counter and plop the dough onto the counter. Then, break the dough into two equal pieces. Begin working with each piece of dough, and roll each piece into a long log, like so. The logs should be approximately 1.5″ in diameter.

If you are using one baking sheet, you can get away with making two logs. They will be about 1.5 feet long each.

If you are using two baking sheets, you can create four shorter logs.

By the way, my mom did all of the work here, and I took the pictures!

Place the two logs of dough on your baking sheet.

Baking the dough

Pop the baking sheet into the oven and bake the logs for 25 minutes. The logs will expand and look like this after they are baked.

Remove the baking sheets from the oven, and let them sit for five minutes to cool just a bit.

After they have cooled, carefully place the logs onto a cutting board. Let them hang out for another five minutes or so.

Cut the logs into pieces to make the cookies; the pieces should be about 1/2′ wide each. Typically, this recipe yields anywhere from 48 to 56 biscotti.

Place the cut cookies back on the baking sheet, cut side up, and put them back in the oven.

If you have a convection bake feature on your oven, switch that on.

Place the biscotti back in the oven for 10 minutes (on convection bake) or until they become golden brown.

If you do not have a convection bake feature on your oven, bake the biscotti for 5 minutes, then flip each one, and bake for another 5 minutes.

Once the biscotti have cooled, place them on a serving dish and dust with some powdered sugar, if desired.

Storage

To store the biscotti, place them in an air-tight sealed container. The cookies will stay fresh for weeks this way.

Looking for more sweet recipes?

• Blueberry Cobbler
• Mini Cheesecakes with Graham Cracker Crusts
• Easy Chocolate Banana Muffins