biscotti

As you may remember, I had my left hip replaced in early June. On my previous post-surgical visit in July, I brought my doctor some Italian Anise Seed Biscotti. It turns out that he’s not a sweet eater, but he loved my Italian anise seed biscotti.
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Tomorrow, I have another appointment and I promised him some different varieties of biscotti. I made Crisp Chocolate, Cappuccino, Rosemary Walnut and Biscotti di Prato. The Cappuccino and Rosemary Walnut are from the December 1992 issue of Gourmet Magazine. 

The Biscotti di Prato recipe is from a class I took back in May 1998 at the former Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School. Today, this school is known as the Institute of Culinary Education.   Pastry chef, Nick Malgieri’s directed a baking class titled “Italian Biscotti and Cookies”. It was a wonderful and enjoyable day in Manhattan. The class was an all day event and covered classic and regional biscotti and other cookies. We also made varieties of amaretti and fried cookies.

I first came across Crisp Chocolate Biscotti from a food TV show back in 2000 called New York Eats with Ed Levine and Jeffrey Steingarten. The show aired on AMC Networks on the Metro-Learning channel and that is where the recipe is from. I’ve have a handwritten note on the sheet Mr. Malgieri’s name, so I’ll assume and credit him for the recipe. I’ve looked on the internet for this recipe, but all I can find is a recipe for Milk Chocolate Biscotti by Mr. Malgieri.

The Cappuccino Biscotti are flavored with cinnamon, ground cloves, espresso, vanilla and hazelnuts, which give these biscotti such wonderful flavor. The Rosemary Biscotti ingredients include cornmeal, plain nonfat yogurt, walnuts and either fresh or dried and crumbled rosemary. The Biscotti di Prato needs whole, unbalanced almonds. The Chocolate Biscotti need Dutch processed cocoa.


I love the cappuccino biscotti. I’ve made them before and they do smell and taste just like a cup of cappuccino. The rosemary walnut biscotti were made for the first time. As the doctor doesn’t care for sweets, I thought this would be a good biscotti to try. For me this would be a cookie to have with a glass of wine due to its savory flavor. Although the biscotti was baked twice, it didn’t have the same crunch as a sweet biscotti. My husband wasn’t impressed by them and suggested leaving them out of the doctor’s box. Nick Malgieri’s Biscotti di Prato and Crisp Chocolate Biscotti are delicious. I’ve made them before and they came out perfect. These biscotti require a hard bite and are ever so crunchy.

As I look over the syllabus from the biscotti class, there is another biscotti that catches my eye, Mostaccioli. My aunt used to work in a pastry shop in Newark and they made these every Christmas. This recipe calls for cocoa powder, finely ground almonds and honey along with baking pantry staples. There’s not much sugar in this recipe, perhaps I’ll make these to go along with the other biscotti.