Honey Biscotti

Recipes on this page were developed or tested by CeCe Sullivan of the Times food staff and were evaluated by staff members.

The following recipe is from "Maida Heatter's Best Dessert Book Ever."

HONEY BISCOTTI About 40 cookies

1 1/4 cups whole unblanched almonds

3 eggs

1/2 cup mild honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3 cups plus 1 tablespoon sifted unbeached flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoons finely ground white pepper

1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake the almonds in a wide, shallow pan, stirring once for 13 minutes. Set aside to cool. Chop coarsely.

2. Adjust 2 racks to divide the oven into thirds and reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees. Line two 12-by-15 1/2-inch cookie sheets with aluminum foil, shiny side up, and set aside.

3. In a small bowl beat the eggs with the honey and the vanilla and almond extracts, mixing well, and set aside. Into the large bowl of an electric mixer sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, ginger and sugar. Add the beaten egg mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and beat on low speed, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula until the mixture holds together. Slowly beat in the nuts. The mixture will be thick, gooey and rubbery.

4. Lightly flour a large work surface and turn the dough out onto the floured area. Lightly sift flour over the top of the dough. Cut the dough in half. With a wide spatula turn one piece of dough a few times to lightly flour all sides and form the dough into an elongated oval about 10 inches long. Pick up the dough and quickly transfer to a lined baking sheet. Reshape the dough if necessary. Repeat with the remaining dough.

5. Bake the dough in the preheated oven 50 minutes, reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during the baking to ensure even browning. The dough will spread a bit during baking.

6. Remove the dough from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees. Peel the foil from the back of the dough strips. With a serrated bread knife, cut the strips on a sharp angle into cookies 1/2 inch wide. Place the cookies on the baking sheets and bake 20 minutes. Turn the cookies over and continue baking 15 to 20 minutes, until dry. Do not overbake. While still warm the cookies will feel a little soft, but will become hard and crisp when cooled. Cool completely before storing.