Apricot & Almond Biscotti

• servings: Makes 18 cookies

Ingredients

2 large eggs

½ cup [165 g] apricot preserves

¼ teaspoon almond extract

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons cornstarch

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups [220 g] almond flour

½ cup [70 g] roasted, salted almonds

½ cup [100 g] dried apricots, roughly chopped

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350°F [175°C]. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set it aside.

Place the eggs, preserves, almond extract, and olive oil in a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Add the cornstarch, baking soda, and salt and whisk well to make sure those are incorporated really well. Stir in the almond flour and then fold in the almonds and apricots. The dough will be sticky, almost more of an extremely thick batter.

Use a rubber spatula to scrape the dough onto the prepared sheet pan. Wet your hands (to prevent the dough from sticking to them and use them to shape the dough into a 12-by-3-inch [30-by-8-cm] rectangle. Bake the loaf until it is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 30 minutes.

Remove the loaf from the oven and carefully transfer it to a cutting board (you can let it cool down a bit first if you'd like, but l am impatient).

Use a serrated knife to cut the loaf into 18 cookies, each measuring about ½ inch [1 cm] thick. I always. trim off the ends and snack on them and so should you. No one needs to know.

Lay the cookies on one of their cut sides on the still-warm sheet pan and bake until the exposed sides are dried out a bit, about 3 minutes. Carefully turn each cookie over and bake until the second sides are also dried out a bit, about another 3 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool (they will crisp more as they cool). Serve at room temperature.

Leftovers can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month or so (let them defrost at room temperature and serve as is, or re-crisp them in the oven doing 3 minutes per side like when you first baked them).

Notes

From: ‘Simply Julia’ by Julia Turshen