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Biscotti

Felix Intelegando Updated All recipes

These almond biscotti, biscotti di mandorla, are crisp Italian biscuits baked twice: first as three flat logs, then again as slanted slices. The dough is simple: whole toasted almonds, flour, sugar, two eggs, a little melted butter and grated lemon zest. The recipe makes about 45 pieces and takes roughly 1 hour 10 minutes, most of it oven time. They go well with a cup of coffee.

Golden almond biscotti slices with whole almonds in the cut faces, stacked on a wooden board beside a cup of black coffee
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Golden almond biscotti slices with whole almonds in the cut faces, stacked on a wooden board beside a cup of black coffee

Recipe

Biscotti

Prep
15 mins
Cook
55 mins
Total
1 hr 10 mins
Serves
45 pieces

Ingredients

Method

  1. Lay the almonds all over a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
  2. Turn on the oven at 200 ° C and put the almonds in the oven for approx. 15 minutes – keep an eye on them. They should only be toasted – do not burn. Then turn the oven down to 175 ° C and remove the almonds.
  3. Melt the butter and let it cool a little.
  4. Stir butter, egg and grated lemon peel together.
  5. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and toasted almonds and knead it with butter, egg and lemon peel.
  6. Divide the dough into three equal parts and roll them to sausages that are as long as your baking sheet / baking tray is wide.
  7. Lay the sausages on the baking tray covered with baking paper and press them flat so they are approx. 2½ cm thick.
  8. Put them in the oven for approx. 25 minutes.
  9. Let them cool for a couple of minutes and cut them with a sharp knife, in slanted slices.
  10. Put them in the oven again and bake them approx. 15 minutes until golden – turn them over along the way.

Step by step, in pictures

The six stages below follow the recipe card, from toasting the almonds to the second bake.

  1. Line drawing of whole almonds spread in a single layer on a paper-lined baking sheetToast the whole almonds
  2. Line drawing of a fork stirring eggs into melted butter in a bowl, with a box grater and half a lemon beside itStir butter, eggs and lemon zest
  3. Line drawing of two hands kneading a dough studded with whole almonds in a large bowlKnead in the dry ingredients and almonds
  4. Line drawing of three long flattened dough logs side by side on a paper-lined baking trayShape three flat logs
  5. Line drawing of a chef's knife slicing a baked log into slices on a wooden cutting boardSlice the baked logs on the slant
  6. Line drawing of slanted biscotti slices laid in rows on a baking tray for the second bakeBake the slices a second time

Whole almonds and butter: what makes this version different

Many biscotti recipes chop the almonds. This one keeps them whole: you toast them, then knead them straight into the dough. That saves the chopping and leaves whole almonds scattered through the slices.

The dough is held together by two eggs and just 50 g of melted butter, with grated lemon zest for flavour. The recipe asks for an unsprayed lemon, because it is the peel that goes into the dough.

How Italian is this version?

Biscotti is Italian for biscuits. I have also heard that the word should mean “double baked”, since the biscuits are baked twice, but I am not sure of that.

To find as Italian a version as possible, I looked in the Italian cookbook Sølvskeen (The Silver Spoon), said to be the bible of Italian cooking with its 2,000 recipes. It had four or five biscotti recipes, but not this double-baked almond version, so this one may be less Italian than I thought. Even so, I think it is the kind most people picture when biscotti come up.

What is the secret to good biscotti?

In this recipe it comes down to three things: almonds toasted lightly rather than dark, logs pressed to about 2½ cm before the first bake, and a second bake in which the slices are turned over so both cut sides turn golden.

  • Watch the almonds. They go in at 200 °C for about 15 minutes and should colour lightly, not burn. Turn the oven down to 175 °C as you take them out.
  • Slice after a short rest. Let the baked logs cool for a couple of minutes, then cut slanted slices with a sharp knife.
  • Turn the slices. This recipe turns them over during the second bake, as do all six published almond biscotti recipes compared for this page.

Biscotti questions, answered

How long do biscotti take to make?

About 1 hour 10 minutes: roughly 15 minutes of hands-on work and 55 minutes in the oven, made up of 15 minutes for the almonds, 25 for the logs and 15 for the slices.

How many biscotti does this recipe make?

About 45 pieces, cut from three logs.

Is it better to use butter or oil for biscotti?

This recipe uses butter: 50 g, melted and cooled a little, then stirred with the eggs and lemon zest. It does not give an oil version, so swapping the butter for oil is outside what this recipe covers.

Which nut is most often used in biscotti?

Almonds. They are the nut in this recipe and in most of the classic recipes in Google’s top US results for “biscotti recipe” (checked October 2026).

Can I leave out the lemon?

Yes. The recipe marks the zest of one unsprayed lemon as optional.

More baking from AlmostNordic

For another crisp biscuit, try Bastogne cookies. If you would rather bake a cake, the orange cake is an easy everyday bake.

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