Ingredients

• 1 cup whole unblanched almonds
• 125 grams butter, softened
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon almond liqueur
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Lightly grease 1-2 baking trays or line with baking paper.
2. Place the almonds on a tray or in a cake tin and roast in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes until they smell nutty and are slightly browned. Cool before chopping into chunky pieces. Reduce the oven to 160ºC.
3. Beat the butter, sugar and liqueur together until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time.
4. Sift together the flour and baking powder and stir into the creamed mixture with the almonds. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and divde the mixture in half.
5. Roll each portion into a sausage shape about 3cm in diameter. Place on the prepared trays.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the rolls are set and lightly browned on top.
7. Transfer the rolls to a cake rack and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Slice the rolls diagonally into1-cm wide slices an dplace the slices back on the tray.
8. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes, turning over after 5 minutes. They should be slightly toasted in colour. Cool on a cake rack. Store in an airtight container.

Cooks Tips

Biscotti is an Italian word that means to "cook twice". Tradition has it that these molar-testing biscuits, which are ideal dipped into a hot coffee or red wine, originated in Tuscany, Northern Italy.