TWD: Lenox Almond Biscotti

I have to admit that I was a bit underwhelmed when I first saw that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was for an almond biscotti. I've never been a big fan of biscotti, as every one I've ever tried was hard, dry and dusty. But then, I'd never had homemade biscotti before. What a difference!

The original recipe for these biscotti comes from Lenox Restaurant in New York City, and it produces a delightfully crunchy, almond flavored cookie. The dough is made with flour and cornmeal and which, I found, gave the biscotti a little rougher texture with a bit of chewiness, which I liked.

I ended up making two different kinds of biscotti from this recipe. I kept half the batch as is with sliced almonds and almond flavoring. The rest became a vanilla flavored biscotti with chopped pistachio nuts and dried brandied cherries mixed in. The almond half got dipped in in some melted bittersweet chocolate and the pistachio half got a drizzle of melted white chocolate over them. They were very different, but both were very delicious!

This recipe was not difficult to put together, but I did have to almost double the first baking time. Even then, the almond ones were very hard to cut cleanly. I don't know why, but I didn't have that problem with the pistachio ones.

If you've never made homemade biscotti from scratch before, I urge you to try it. These have made a convert out of me. My thanks go out to Gretchen from Canela & Comino for selecting this recipe for us. It was a great choice! You can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours, or visit Gretchen's site. If you'd like to see what the rest of the TWD gang have done with biscotti, check out the blogroll here.