A bit of luck helped secure this next recipe. My roomie's P.O. box was formerly used by one J. K. who apparently subscribed to Fine Cooking, a magazine that features none other than food and food-related gadgets. It happens to be their Christmas '06 issue featuring a pull-out section of their top 12 cookie recipes from the last 12 years--score! It begins with 1994's almond biscotti, and so I begin there too.

Almond Biscotti
From Fine Cooking Magazine

• 1 1/2 cups whole almonds, skin on
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon aniseed
• grated zest of 1 lemon, 1 orange, and 1 lime
• 3 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

• Heat the oven to 350°F.
• Toast the almonds and let cool.
• In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, aniseed, and grated zests on medium-low speed.
• In a separate bowl, lightly beat the edds, egg yolks, and vanilla together with a whisk.
• With the mixer running on medium low, pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture.
• When the egg mixture is almost completely incorporated, reduce the speed and add the almonds, mixing until the dough just comes together. (Do not over mix, the dough will be stiff and sticky).
• Dump the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead in by hand any remaining dry ingredients from the bottom of the bowl.
• Divide the dough into 3 equal parts.
• With floured hands, roll each part into a log about 10 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.
• Place the logs 4 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.
• Bake the logs at 350° until they're light brown but still soft, about 45 minutes.
• Remove from oven and let logs cool for at least 10 minutes.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F.
• Cut the logs into 3/4-inch thick biscotti.
• Place the biscotti back on the baking sheet and dry them another 10 to 15 minutes.
• Transfer to a rack to cool.
  

About this recipe: I like this recipe because it combines fresh citrus zest with aniseed that I think will make an excellent combo. I don't like the fact that there is so much sugar. I immediately decided to cut the sugar to 1 cup and I think you should too. In fact, you could probably go with 3/4 cup sugar and be just as happy with the way these turn out.

The directions have you dump all of the dry ingredients and zest into a mixer (except for the almonds), mix the eggs, yolks, and vanilla in another bowl, pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix. Not too complicated. I used only lemon and orange zest, lime had the night off. Actually, I've used lime zest in cookies and it isn't terrible flavorful and I can't imagine that you'd really notice it above the orange and lemon. Just add some extra lemon or orange zest and call it a day.

When I added the wet to the dry and mixed, it came together into a dry, clumpy meal and then I added my almonds. I stirred a bit more but it never held together tightly in the mixer. I kneaded the result to get the desired dough without issue. It is quite sticky because of the huge quantity of sugar, given the ratio of it to the flour. Flour your hands to form into logs or be prepared to get stuck.

Baking was a snap. The first baking took about 40 minutes while I increased the second to 10 to 15 minutes per side to give them a light golden color that I enjoy.

The result: a sweet, (no kidding, even at 1 cup sugar so you can definitely cut to 3/4 cup) nutty, dry cookie with an obvious aniseed finish. Oddly, the citrus zest doesn't stand out all that much, overpowered as it is with the aniseed and sugar. Maybe when they have a chance to cool completely it will help. I like these biscotti but they're still too sweet.