Vanilla Almond Biscotti

Story of my life: mom always yelling at me because of the slightest mess Iv'e made through baking! So the pieces fell perfectly together when treats ran out, and I wanted to bake something, and my grandma wanted me to come over to her house that following afternoon to bake something for her...:D
My family and I were going on vacation in a couple of days, and my grandma, herself, was going on a cruz in a few weeks, so we decided on baking something delicious, very low on fat, and of course, something that can be kept/stored for a long time. Biscotti!!!

I found the recipe very special, because this had been passed down through friends of my grandmothers generation, but still the ingrediants and directions remained very simple for such a delicious dessert.

-3 cups A.P. white flour
-2 cups sugar
-4 eggs
-1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
-2 tsp. vanilla extract
-1/4 cup nuts such as walnuts or hazelnuts, alightly roasted/toasted (optional)
-1 cup almonds , slightly toasted/roasted
-1 cup almond powder

Directions:
Sift and then mix all the dry igrdediants into one large bowl together. Mix in the eggs. Mix in everything else and let it all mix until everythings combined into a dough. Form the dough into 2 even sized loaves and bake in the oven at


After the loaves cook in the over for about, take them out and slice them at an angle and place them on one of their flat sides into the oven for about another, flip them one more time, and let them bake for about another or until the edges start browning.


For the second biscotti loaf, we wanted to make the biscotti smaller, so we cut the load in half




The original recipe actually called for 2 cups of almonds, but since my grandmother had almond powder on hand, we added a cup less of almonds and a cup of almond powder instead.

The almond powder gave the biscotti a much stronger almond flavor then the whole almonds did, so I would add the almond powder into the dough the next time I bake these again. I you don't have any almond powder on hand, you can make i yourself by just tossing some almonds into the food prosseser, until they become as powdery an you want. Just be sure to use cold almonds, so that they don't turn into almond paste in the prosesser. If you don't feel like doing this, you can always add a few teaspoons of almond extract into the dough to give it a strong almond flavor.

Be sure to allow the cookies to cool completely before serving, in order for them to become as hard and crispy as possible. They store well and keep their crunchy texture in the freezer.