I've never thought that one day I'd have the enthusiasm to bake biscotti. The bakery I bought my first biscotti from had baked them too hard and dry. It gave me an entirely wrong impression of how biscotti should taste like!

But here in the restaurant I'm working at, we serve almond biscotti with tea & coffee after the meals are served. The biscotti are really beautiful, almost perfect with the green pistachios and cut into very very thin pieces. Without a close observation, I might even assume that all biscotti are exactly identical. Long, thin and narrow.

They were really inspiring, and since these biscotti are usually pre-baked, I've not been lucky enough to witness the process. (soon I hope!) I decided to try at home then. My first attempt failed and I tried again last night.

These green tea biscotti are extremely fragrant. The sugar balances off the slight bitter taste of matcha and I love the texture, nicely crunchy but not hard to bite. I also like this recipe as it does not contains butter. Biscotti baked using butter turn stale faster and usually taste better only on the day they are made. They are great to go along with coffee&tea too!

I would think that this batch is way better and from my mistakes, I've baking tips that might help you on your first attempt at biscotti.

1) I reckon you've heard of "it's important to know your oven" a thousand times. I assume that all biscotti recipes will tell you to pre-bake the biscotti dough at 350degreeF. However, if your oven is usually hotter, you must lower the temperature. What happened to my first batch of biscotti was that the side have become too dry and hard when the center are just ready to be cut. This will cause the 'head and tail' of your long biscotti to crack when you cut it to bake the second time.

2) The second thing to take note is that if your recipe yields a large amount of biscotti dough, you must divide them into half before rolling them into log shapes. If the entire dough are baked together as one, the center will still be soft and wet after the first baking period. This causes the dough to clump and REALLY stick together when you cut them. There will not be holes in the biscotti after baking them the second time, making them ugly! (but still delicious... HAHA)

3) Try to cut your biscotti or equal thinness as much as possible so that when you bake them, some do not become incredibly hard while others are just right.

Yes. So you hear the bakers telling you biscotti are the easiest thing to make; but not really. I still think it involves a lot of practical experience before you can do it right and beautiful! It's currently my favourite cookie and I am so sure I will make it again, another flavour though! :)

Matcha Almond Biscotti
make 20 biscotti
recipe adapted from JoyOfBaking

140g sugar
2 eggs
230g flour
15g matcha (green tea powder)
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
70g chopped almonds.

Preheat oven to 350degrees. Beat eggs and sugar on high speed until light and thick, about 8-10minutes. Then add the vanilla. Sift and whisk the dry ingredients in a bowl. On low speed, pour in the ingredients until well combined. Stir in nuts. Roll into 2 logs on your baking tray and bake 20-25minutes.

Remove from oven and cool enough to handle. Lower oven temperature to 325degrees . Cut using a serrated knife diagonally and place them on baking tray. Bake for 10minutes, then flip the downside up, and bake another 10minutes until completely dry.