Toasted Walnut Biscotti
It seems like just about every culture has a version of a crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth cookie made with ground nuts. In Mexico, they make Mexican wedding cookies. In the American South, they have pecan sandies. These cookies are based on a Greek version made with ground walnuts. We press a walnut half into each cookie, which looks very pretty. You will need a 1-inch round cookie cutter to make these.
Ingredients
makes about 3 dozen cookies
Step 1
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F.
Step 2
Reserve 40 of the nicest-looking nut halves for topping the cookies and set them aside. Scatter the remaining 1/4 cup of walnuts on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven until they are lightly browned, shaking the pan occasionally for even browning, about 10 minutes. Remove the walnuts from the oven and set them aside to cool to room temperature.
Step 3
Warm the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until it boils with large, loud, rapidly bursting bubbles. Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking for another 5 to 7 minutes, without letting it brown, until the butter becomes foamy and the bubbles are fewer and quieter. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl to cool. Skim the foam off the top and pour or spoon out 1/2 cup of the clarified butter, leaving the milk solids at the bottom of the bowl; discard the solids. Pour the 1/2 cup of clarified butter into a medium bowl and refrigerate the leftover butter for another use.
Step 4
Stir the flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl and combine thoroughly.
Step 5
Combine the toasted walnuts and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and grind to a fine meal. Turn the meal out into the bowl with the flour and stir to thoroughly combine. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Stir the walnut oil and vanilla into the bowl with the clarified butter and pour into the well. Use a whisk to combine the wet and dry ingredients, drawing the dry ingredients from the outer edges inward until the wet and dry ingredients are fully integrated. Dust a flat work surface with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Knead the dough for a few minutes until it comes together into a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to three days, or freeze for up to two months. (Defrost the dough overnight in the refrigerator.)
Step 6
Adjust two oven racks so that one rack is in the top third of the oven and one in the bottom third and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 7
Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Dust a flat work surface with flour, cut the dough into chunks, and knead the dough on the countertop to soften it, until it is the texture of Play-Doh. Dust the work surface again with flour and dust a rolling pin with flour. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thick, adding more flour to the surface or the rolling pin if the dough is sticking. (Depending on the size of your countertop, you may have to roll the dough out in two batches. Cut the dough in half and refrigerate one half while you are rolling the other.) Cut the dough with a 2 1/4-inch round cookie cutter, making the cuts as close together as possible. Carefully lift the rounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between each cookie. When you have cut all the dough, gather what is left and reroll it and cut it in the same way. (If the dough is too soft to reroll, gather it into a ball and refrigerate it to chill it slightly before rolling it again.) Discard the scraps after rerolling it once. Place one walnut half, arched side up, in the center of each cookie. If all of the cookies don’t fit on two sheets, put them on a third parchment-lined baking sheet, if you have one, or place them on a sheet of parchment paper and refrigerate the dough while the first batch is baking. If you are reusing the baking sheets, set the cookies aside to cool slightly before removing them from the baking sheet, then bake the second batch in the same way as the first.
Step 8
Bake the cookies for 14 to 16 minutes, until they are golden brown, rotating the baking sheets both from front to back and from the upper to lower racks halfway through cooking time so the cookies brown evenly. Remove the cookies from the oven and set them aside to cool completely.
suggested wine pairing
Step 9
Vin Santo Del Chianti Classico (Tuscany)
