I'm feelin' Italian

I've got a super easy and tasty recipe for Biscotti I wanted to share. Giving credit where credit is due, Julie discovered this and she and I have made it several times. Biscotti is one of my favorite things since it's fairly low fat (depending on what you add to it) and you usually don't eat a ton. It's also a wonderful accompaniment to a cup of coffee or tea. This particular biscotti is only 72 calories per slice and 1 gram of fat. My changes are in red.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds, chopped and toasted I toast first and then chop to a fine powder, almost a flour, in my mini food processor.
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 egg white
Vegetable cooking spray (optional)

Preparation

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine vanilla and next 3 ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring until well-blended. Dough will be super sticky!

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly 7 or 8 times. Shape dough into a 16-inch-long roll. Place roll on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, and flatten roll to 1-inch thickness. I turn out onto my baking sheet lined with parchment (no cooking spray), shape there, and skip the kneading. It's way too sticky to move from the counter to the sheet after shaping.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove roll from baking sheet to a wire rack, and let cool 10 minutes. Cut roll diagonally into 30 (1/2-inch) slices, and place, cut sides down, on baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 325°, and bake 10 minutes. Turn cookies over, and bake an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; let cool completely on wire rack.

Yield

2 1/2 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)