biscotti

I try to be a good son, stopping what I am doing from time to time and visit mom. This happens about once a month and by the time the trip is over, I return home with so much food that I feel as if I were still a starving college student on a cheap beer diet.

 Fortunate to have been raised in such a food obsessed family I quietly valued moms cooking over dads. It was just simple, to the point, at times bad for you and most of all comforting. Like all good moms her attempts to send you into a diabetic coma are relentless. Many of my favorite foods come from that kitchen – the caponatina, marinated peppers and olives, fried artichokes, bucatini Milanese, sugo, bollito, and the list could go on for days.

 I still stand transfixed as I watch her kneed flour into dough, or listen to her careful instructions on how to clean a still warm-from-the-kill fluffy little bunny.

I can’t ever recall her flinching at the sight of a burn or cut, unlike veteran self proclaimed bad-ass cooks she is virtually fearless in the kitchen – this woman can cook.

 We often talk about various degrees of cooking, what I’m doing and how she thinks my lean towards the less traditional more contemporary style of cookery has betrayed millions of my countrymen. We argue about work in the kitchen, and share recipes but what I truly miss is having the time to cook with her. She is my constant reminder of how simple cooking really is. I sometimes laugh as we cook together, as she never seems to measure anything but manages remember exactly how much of each ingredient a recipe calls for.  

 I’m not big on sweets, unless it comes in a glass spiked with bourbon you can keep your cream and sugar all to yourself.  One of my ultimate, shameful weaknesses is mom’s biscotti. I could hide in a corner and eat the entire jar. These things are so good they could make Jimmy Hendrix feel as if he were running through fields of clover again.

 The following recipe is in grams. When it comes to baking the metric system ensures precision, giving you better chances at a uniform end product… plus this is mom’s recipe and she refused to convert for me.

 Biscotti

 500 g flour

300 g sugar

3 eggs

1 packet yeast (1/4 oz)

50 g butter (softened)

250 g chocolate chip

300 g almonds

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift flour and sugar together- set aside. Separate the egg whites, reserving the yolks. Beat the egg whites to a soft peak- set aside.

In a second bowl place the butter, and stir in the egg yolks using a wooden spoon. This is a very sticky dough, use your hands and you’ll be washing half the batch down the sink.

Once the butter and egg yolks are incorporated stir in the yeast and the remaining ingredients. Fold in the flour sugar mixture by thirds.  Once everything is well incorporated, delicately fold in the egg whites.

On a well lubricated baking sheet, divide the dough into four giant cookies. Bake at 350 till cookies are cooked through- about 15 minutes, maybe less, maybe more. Allow them to rest, and slice them into ½ to 1 inch thick slices. Lay them back into the baking sheet and reinsert into the warm oven, allowing them to dry and stiffen up further.