For years I’ve made only our traditional biscotti recipes, anise, lemon and almond.
My best friend, Dinora, likes the candied fruit one finds in fruit cake so I came up with a special biscotti recipe just for her. The first time I made them I used the candied fruit you get in the markets. Then I discovered the European mixed candied peel from King Arthur Flour It’s a mixture of 40% orange, 40% lemon and 20% citron.
I came up with the recipe for HER but this is THE biscotti recipe that is the “fragrant taste of home” for ME.
While I wait for these beloved biscotti to bake, I close my eyes and I swear I can smell the wild flowers on the Sicilian hillside long before I even taste my Fiori di Sicilia, the flowers of Sicily.
Makes approximately 3 dozen (depending on how you slice them).
Ingredients:
- 4 ounces unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon Marsala
- 1/4 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 4 ounces blanched almonds
- 1/2 cup European mixed candied peel
- Place almonds on baking tray in 350* oven for 5 minutes or until golden.
- Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add Marsala and Fiori di Sicilia.
- Stir flour, salt and baking powder together. Stir into butter mixture.
- Medium chop cooled almonds. Stir nuts and mixed peel into dough. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.
- On parchment-lined cookie sheet, take half the dough and roll into two (12 in. by 2 in.) logs. Flatten slightly. (For a visual look at the technique involved for making these or any other biscotti recipe, refer to the Anise biscotti recipe). Repeat with the other half of dough.
- Bake in a 350* oven 30-35 minutes. They should be a light golden color. Remove from oven and cool.
- Carefully place log on cutting board, using a serrated knife cut diagonally into 1/2 inch slices.
- Arrange close together back on cookie sheet, bake for an additional 25-30 minutes until lightly golden.
