Espresso Almond Biscotti

Last week, I had coffee with a couple of friends from college. We met up, supposedly for lunch, and had coffee for about 3 hours. It's only been 4/5 months since we've graduated but it really feels like college happened years and worlds ago. Life stage after life stage seems to flow, unstoppable even by the obvious unreadiness of the life being. But I guess that's also where the excitement of life comes from. One moment you're reading a book about theories on perfect competition and the next, you're spending your nights brainstorming on how to beautifully plate a poached pear. Life seems to be rushing in, exciting new chapters unfolding every second.


But of course, occasional pauses with great company over a cup of coffee is always a breath of fresh air.

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This is a recipe from school, I only changed the 2nd baking temperature. To avoid any type of possible conflicts, this will probably be the only unchanged recipe from school that I will post.

ESPRESSO ALMOND BISCOTTI

Ingredients
115g bread flour
2g baking powder
60g butter
60g sugar
50g [1 pc] egg
60g almonds, chopped
2g instant coffee powder, dissolved in 1 tsp water
20g dark chocolate, chooped; optional

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Sift together bread flour and baking powder.
3. Cream together butter and sugar until light.
4. Add in egg and coffee, mix until well combined.
5. Add in flour mixture and chopped almonds.
6. Transfer cookie dough onto a silicone mat or well-greased cookie sheet.
7. Shape into a bar, around 6"X3". --- The dough is quite sticky and hard to handle. What I do is I transfer the dough onto a piece of cling wrap first and shape it there. I then transfer it to the cookie sheet then continue shaping it with the cling wrap. Needless to say, do not bake the cling wrap.
8. Bake for 25-30 mins. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool until cool enough to handle. Lower oven temperature to 300F.
9. Slice into 1/2 inch thick strips and lie it back down the cookie sheet.
10. Allow to dry in oven - around 15-20mins. Transfer to a cooling rack.
11. Melt dark chocolate. Drizzle over cooled cookies. Store in airtight container. Best served with coffee.