The Perfect Cookies and Biscottie for My Coffee

This morning I was thinking  in the Italian Bisquetes that I used to make long time ago, and how delicous are with "Cafe con Leche" (coffee and milk) well for me is more milk than coffe. My mom, used to make the coffe from scrach,  no sugar, light. Put it in the blender and add powder milk... turn it on for some seconds, and the result, a creamy, foamy cofee milk, then I added suggar to taste. Here

Back at home in Venezuela, I used to have cofee milk, very often. Before going to work, at work twice (morning and afternoon) and some times with my dinner. I cannot remember to have problem to sleep or feeling hyper. Basically at home we prepare the coffee as I mentioned before.

Other type of coffee that I love is the espresso,  I ussually had this type of coffee in any bakery in Venezuela with biscotti (Italian biscuits) or "cachitos", a bread filled with ham and bacon, very delicous...with those memories in my mind, I was looking in the net for some good cookies recipes that I can have with my coffee milk and I found this page Delonghi, with some wonderful cookie recipes that I will share with you.

Amaretti Biscuit

These delicious crumbly almond biscuits are very famous, and are often found in Italian coffee bars individually wrapped in beautiful coloured paper. (Makes Approx 30 biscuits)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs, whites only
• 350g caster sugar
• 400g ground almonds
• 2 tablespoons Amaretto liqueur
• Handful of flaked almonds to decorate (optional)
• Icing sugar to decorate (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas 3, and line a baking tray with edible rice paper, lightly greased with some butter.

2. Whisk the egg whites in a large clean bowl until firm, and then gently fold in the sugar and ground almonds.

3. Fold in the Amaretto liqueur until everything is thoroughly mixed together (don’t worry if it looks lumpy), and then use a teaspoon to place small heaps onto the baking tray, making sure to leave an inch around each of the heaps as they will increase in size whilst baking. Press a flaked almond onto each amaretti heap.

4. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown, and then remove from the oven and leave to cool. Once cool enough to handle, peel the biscuits away from the rice paper. It is normal for some rice paper to be stuck to the bottom of the biscuits; this is fine as rice paper is edible. Lightly dust with sifted icing sugar if desired.

Perfect alongside an espresso.

You can make also the espresso on the stove, chick here for direction.

Cinnamon and Hazlenut Biscotti

‘Biscotti’ meaning ‘cooked twice’ are traditional Italian biscuits that are characteristically very crunchy due to being baked twice. They are perfect when dunked into your favourite Italian coffee! (Makes Approx 15 biscuits)

Recetas for some Italian coffee, click here.

Ingredients

• 150g plain flour, plus a bit extra for dusting
• 110g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 100g toasted hazelnuts, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/356F/Gas 4 and line a baking tray with greaseproof or silicone paper, lightly greased with butter

2. In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to thoroughly mix together the flour, sugar, egg, baking powder, and cinnamon until a soft dough is formed. Add more flour if necessary if the dough is too sticky.

3. Once you have a soft dough, flour your hands well and lightly kneed the dough, mixing in the hazelnuts. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and roll it into a thick log shape. Press down lightly on top of the log to flatten it slightly. Place the biscotti log onto the greased baking tray, and bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

4. Remove the biscotti log from the oven, and leave to cool slightly. Leave the oven on.

5. When the biscotti log is cool enough to touch, slice it into diagonal slices about 2cm wide and rearrange the slices onto the baking tray. Return to the oven, and leave to dry out for around 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. They will continue to harden as they cool.

Your biscotti will now be very crunchy, ideal for dipping in a strong espresso to soak up all of the wonderful coffee flavour.

Lemon and Pistachio Biscotti

‘Biscotti’ meaning ‘cooked twice’ are traditional Italian biscuits that are characteristically very crunchy due to being baked twice. They are perfect when dunked into your favourite Italian coffee! (Makes Approx 15 biscuits)

Ingredients

• 150g plain flour, plus a bit extra for dusting
• 110g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Zest of one unwaxed lemon
• 100g unsalted pistachios, shelled

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/356F/Gas 4 and line a baking tray with greaseproof or silicone paper, lightly greased with butter

2. In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to thoroughly mix together the flour, sugar, egg and baking powder, until a soft dough is formed. Add more flour if necessary if the dough is too sticky.

3. Once you have a soft dough, flour your hands well and lightly kneed the dough, mixing in the lemon zest and pistachios. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and roll it into a thick log shape. Press down lightly on top of the log to flatten it slightly. Place the biscotti log onto the greased baking tray, and bake for 25 minutes or until golden.

4. Remove the biscotti log from the oven, and leave to cool slightly. Leave the oven on.

5. When the biscotti log is cool enough to touch, slice it into diagonal slices about 2cm wide and rearrange the slices onto the baking tray. Return to the oven, and leave to dry out for around 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. They will continue to harden as they cool.

Your biscotti will now be very crunchy, ideal for dipping in a strong espresso to soak up all of the wonderful coffee flavour.