During the summer I look forward to the weekend for a lot of reasons. This weekend, in addition to my weekly visit to the local Farmers’ Market, I found time to do a little baking.
I’ve posted about baking biscotti here before, but today I am working on a new recipe, inspired by the incredible Amish Milk Polenta that Anthony and Carol Boutard produce at Ayers Creek Farm in Gaston, OR.
This polenta is amazing cooked up and served under a topping of garlicky greens and caramelized onions, but it’s also incredible as the background crunch in toasty hazelnut biscotti.
These biscotti are a true celebration of local Oregon foods — I also used fresh eggs from Sweet Briar Farms,
and Ken & June’s Oregon Grown hazelnuts.
Here’s the recipe — modified from one I found in Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From my home to yours.
Hazelnut Polenta Biscotti
makes 35-40 cookies
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup white polenta
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 cup turbinado sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cups finely chopped roasted hazelnuts
Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. Add the polenta and whisk again. Set aside.
Place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Start the mixer very slowly and increase gradually to medium speed as the butter and sugar mix together. Mix for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the eggs. Continue to beat at medium-high speed for another 2-3 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well-mixed.
Beat in the vanilla extract.
Reduce the mixer speed to slow and add the flour mixture, mixing only until just combined.
Turn off the mixer and use a sturdy spatula to fold in the hazelnuts, mixing just to blend.
Scrape the dough into two rough logs on the prepared baking sheet. Smooth them with your fingers (I usually have to wash my hands a couple of times as I do this, the dough is very sticky). The logs will be pretty flat on top, and uneven.
Bake for 15 minutes, until the cookie logs are golden but still springy to the touch.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place it on a cooling rack. Cool the logs on the baking sheet for 30 minutes.
Carefully transfer the logs to a cutting board and, using a serrated knife, cut them into ½ inch slices. Return the slices to the baking rack, standing up, side by side.
Bake the biscotti for another 15 minutes (at 350 degrees), or until they are golden and firm. Transfer them to the rack to cool.
These cookies keep well, even uncovered, for about a week. I usually put them in an airtight container.
I have trouble keeping these around — it’s hard to eat just one — I think you could easily double the recipe if you want to make a bigger batch.
knitting a life 