Have you ever wondered how to make Biscotti at home? These classic, twice-baked Italian cookies are incredibly easy to make and can be customized with your favorite add-ins. Recipe includes a how-to video!
The Perfect Italian Cookie, Made Easy
These super easy Italian biscotti couldn’t be more different from the soft and chewy cookies that I usually share with you. If you’ve ever had biscotti before, you already know they’re not soft at all. Instead they’re hard and crunchy, and despite the fact that I usually avoid these two characteristics like the plague when it comes to cookies, I love these biscotti. In fact, I think they’re ridiculously delicious. But then again, aren’t all Italian desserts?
I used to think that biscotti were challenging to make (kind of like cannoli), but they’re actually not–not even a little bit. Biscotti are made with a very simple dough that you can customize with your favorite extracts and add-ins. They’re different from most cookies, because instead of scooping the dough, you’ll form it into two logs, bake them, let them cool completely, and then slice and them bake again. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you can also dip or drizzle your biscotti with chocolate, but that’s totally your call (obviously, I’m team chocolate 🙋🏼♀️).
Let’s dive right in!
What You Need
Prepare yourself: these ingredients are SUPER basic, but they yield amazingly crisp and flavorful cookies. Here are the stars of today’s recipe:
- Butter. While some recipes use oil, I like to use butter for a better flavor and texture. Use unsalted, softened (not melty!) butter.
- Sugar. Since they are cookies, biscotti should be sweet! Stick with granulated sugar for this recipe.
- Eggs. We’ll add these one at a time and will mix the batter thoroughly after each addition. If you can remember, set your eggs out beforehand so they’re room temperature–they’ll incorporate better that way!
- Vanilla. Two teaspoons will give us a lovely vanilla flavor. If you like your biscotti to taste more traditional (think pizzelle cookies), you can always reduce your vanilla to 1½ teaspoons and add a splash of anise extract (I’ve included instructions in the notes).
- Flour. All-purpose flour works best here. If you have trouble with the dough sticking while trying to form it, feel free to flour your hands.
- Almonds and chocolate chips. While I use chocolate chips and slivered almonds here, you can substitute whatever you like. You can use about 1⅓-1½ cups of your favorite add-ins; raisins, dried cranberries, white chocolate chips, and pistachios, all are popular choices!
- Chocolate. This is optional, but if you’d like to either dip or drizzle your biscotti with extra chocolate (who doesn’t?!) melting wafers work well. You could also use chocolate chips.
SAM’S TIP: If you have a stand mixer, use it! While you can get away with using an electric hand mixer, this dough gets pretty stiff and difficult to mix, so save yourself some effort and use a stand mixer.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Biscotti
- Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined.
- Add the eggs one at a time, stirring after each addition until well incorporated. Stir in the vanilla.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them into the wet ingredients.
- Stir in your add-ins.
- Divide the dough into equal pieces and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Form the dough into logs with lightly floured hands.
- Bake for 30 minutes at 350F, then cool completely.
- Use a serrated knife to slice the loaves diagonally. Place the biscotti cut side down onto your baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove your biscotti from the oven, flip them over, and bake for another 10 minutes. Allow the biscotti to cool completely before dipping or drizzling with chocolate.
SAM’S TIP: Use care when flipping your biscotti as they come out of the oven; they are much more fragile and likely to break while they are warm. I recommend using tongs and a gentle hand to turn them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Because they are baked twice, biscotti are hard and crisp. They’re great for dunking in a hot cup of coffee (cookies for breakfast ❤).
Since they’re are already pretty hard and dry (I promise, they’re delicious and supposed to be that way!), they don’t go stale fast at all. Biscotti will keep for least several weeks when stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Shallow cracks on the surface are normal and nothing to be worried about. You can always dip them in melted chocolate to cover them up.
Enjoy! And if you’re looking for a chocolate version, be sure to check out my chocolate biscotti!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Biscotti Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter softened (141g)
- 1 ⅓ cups sugar (265g)
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (see note if you would like to use anise extract)
- 3 ¼ cups all-purpose cups flour (406g)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
- ⅔ cup slivered almonds (66g)
- ⅔ cup mini chocolate chips (113g)
- ½ cup dark chocolate melting wafers or chocolate chips for dipping biscotti optional (170g)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Using a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer, beat together butter and sugar until creamy and well-combined.
- Add eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
- Stir in vanilla extract.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Gradually add flour mixture into butter mixture, stirring until completely combined.
- Stir in mini chocolate chips and almonds.
- Using lightly floured hands, divide dough into two equal pieces and place on prepared baking sheet. Form dough into two separate logs approximately 10-12″ long by 2-3″ wide, and be sure to space them at least 4″ apart as biscotti will spread (you may use separate cookie sheets to bake, if needed). If dough is too sticky, lightly dust with additional flour and lightly powder your hands with a thin layer of flour.
- Bake 30 minutes on 350F (175C), or until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and allow biscotti to cool completely. (Note that you will need to return the biscotti to the oven after it has cooled and you have sliced it, so you may wish to leave your oven on while the biscotti cools or set yourself a reminder to turn it back on).
- Once cooled, slice loaves diagonally into slices about 1 ½" thick (I recommend using a bread knife for this). Place biscotti cut-side down on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Return to 350F (175C) oven and bake for 10 minutes. Flip each biscotti over gently, and then bake another 10 minutes on 350F (175C). Biscotti should be lightly golden brown when finished baking.
- Allow to cool completely.
- If desired, melt chocolate in 20 second increments (stirring in between) until melted and use a spoon to drizzle over cooled biscotti. Allow chocolate to harden before serving (this will take much longer with chocolate chips than with melting wafers).
Notes
Add-Ins
Feel free to substitute the almonds and/or the chocolate chips with an equal amount of your favorite add-ins, or leave them out entirely!Anise Extract
Classic Italian biscotti are often made with anise extract. Feel free to add 1-2 teaspoons of anise extract or 2 teaspoons of anise seed (in addition to the vanilla extract) if you so desire.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Biscotti will keep for at least two weeks. Biscotti may also be frozen in an airtight container for several months.Chocolate Version
See my chocolate biscotti recipe.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Maria Simao
Truly the best biscotti. Made using exact measures and time
Rosina Erickson
I have made your recipe numerous times and it was always a hit. I do have some friends who are gluten free, can I sub gluten free flour in this recipe? Thank you again for all your wonderful recipes.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Rosina! We haven’t tried it ourselves, but we suspect a 1:1 gluten free flour should work here.
ines
I have made many different types of biscotti in my life. This is definitely a better recipe I really loved it!! It’s a keeper!!!
Stacey Roberts
Have made these twice now and was the first time making biscotti. I used your recipe after looking at a few others, because your’s uses butter instead of oil. I used almond flavoring and sliced almonds, they turned out great. Since it’s just myself, I gave some to friends and they have all asked for the recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you like them, Stacey! Thanks for using our recipe and sharing with your friends 🥰
Deborah
What do I do if the dough is too liquid to form into a log? It did not harden up at all. Maybe it was too cold in my house? I used regular flour. Thank you!
Sam
Hmmm I wonder if it needed more flour in the dough.
Sara M.
I love this recipe! These made perfect biscotti on my first try with the recipe and were super delicious. I’ve made a bunch of different variants using this recipe base and each batch has come out better than the last. After trying a few different recipes with mixed results, I’m so glad I found this one!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you found our recipe too, Sara! Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review; it means a lot to us ❤️ Enjoy your biscotti!
Samantha
Can’t wait to make more. I think I’m going to attempt to make it with white chocolate, walnuts and crasins – YUM!
Stefanias.Journey
I have tried many many biscotti recipes. This one by far is the BEST one!! I even leave them in the oven a little longer so they get hard for dunking. Thank you for this recipe, you have made many people happy!!
Rita Marasa
Halved my dough and made one with blanched almonds and half with cranberries and walnut bits…Scrummy….
Toni Tabarez
The flavor of your biscotti is very good. The reason for the 2 stars are they are way too fragile and crumbly. Cutting them was fine, putting them in the pan was fine. I took them out of the oven to turn the biscotti most of them all crumbled. It’s a shame because I wanted this gluten free biscotti to be a success.
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Toni! Did you substitute gluten free flour? I think that probably caused your issue here. 🙁
Carol Bussmann
These are incredible….they came out perfect! I followed the recipe as written and used chocolate chips and toasted slivered almonds and added the anise extract. After cooling, I drizzled semi-sweet chocolate on top. I will continue to make these, trying them with cranberries next time. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear this, Carol! Thank you so much for commenting and letting me know how they turned out for you! 🙂
Shirley Kataisto
My recipe did not rise. I wonder about using 1 Tbs for baking powder. I’ve never used that much baking powder in a recipe before. They were still tasty but do not appear to be as biscotti.
Sam
Hi Shirley! I’m sorry they didn’t turn out. You do want 1 TBSP of baking powder here. Is it possible yours wasn’t any good any longer?