Hazelnut Almond Biscotti

Mid-June. The summer settled. Tuesday food bank: pollo guisado. Wednesday Cocina week two: sofrito. Same beats.

Father's Day Sunday. Eduardo grilled. Family came. Twenty people. Mami came for two hours. Eduardo had asked her again about flying to Bayamón someday — she had been declining for two years now and he had been hoping with her — and she said, "Eduardo, I am not flying again. The trip is yours and Carmen's. I sent my grandmother and my mother to Bayamón when they were old. You will send me to heaven and that is closer than the island." Eduardo cried. He does not cry often. The day was full.

Friday I sat with Mami three hours. She was in good form. She wanted to tell me about a wedding in 1962 — her cousin's wedding in Caguas, the food, the dress, the music. She told the story slowly with detail. I wrote pieces of it in the notebook. The notebook is part Mami's biography now. The food is one channel. The stories are another.

Sunday dinner second wave: Lucas brought his recipe notebook. Now ten recipes. He had taught himself to make rice. He had made it for Jenny at home Thursday and she had reported it was correct. He was seven in November. Wepa.

When Lucas pulled out his notebook at second wave Sunday dinner — ten recipes now, rice included — I thought about what goes in a notebook and why. Eduardo had just grilled for twenty people, Mami had just told me about a 1962 wedding in Caguas with all the detail she could still hold, and there was something in the air about what we keep and what we pass forward. These hazelnut almond biscotti are exactly the kind of recipe that deserves a page in a notebook: simple enough for a seven-year-old to learn, good enough to bring to a table of twenty, and the kind of thing that travels — to Bayamón someday, or just to the next Sunday.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 50 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 30 biscotti

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup whole hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
3/4 cup whole almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
Add wet ingredients. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla and almond extracts. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until a stiff dough forms. If using orange zest, add it now.
Fold in nuts. Add the chopped hazelnuts and almonds and work them into the dough with your hands until evenly distributed.
Shape the logs. Divide the dough in half. On the prepared baking sheet, shape each half into a log roughly 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, spacing them at least 3 inches apart. Lightly flatten the tops.
First bake. Bake 25–28 minutes, until the logs are golden and set in the center. Remove from oven and let cool on the pan for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.
Slice. Using a serrated knife, cut each log on the diagonal into slices about 3/4 inch thick. Lay the slices cut-side down on the baking sheet in a single layer.
Second bake. Bake at 300°F for 10 minutes, flip each biscotto, then bake another 10–12 minutes until dry and lightly golden on both sides. They will crisp further as they cool.
Cool completely. Transfer to a wire rack and cool fully before storing. Biscotti keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks — long enough to make it into a notebook and onto the table at the next family dinner.

Nutrition (per serving)

Hazelnut Almond Biscotti — The Recipes We Write Down for the Ones Coming Up Behind Us