Crispy and crunchy, these White Chocolate and Praline Biscotti are nutty and just the right amount of sweet. Perfect for dipping into a nice cup of coffee or tea–the warm liquid softens the biscotti–these twice baked cookies have become an instant classic for me. Each slice is full of white chocolate chips and pieces of caramel covered almonds and pecans, meaning that each bite delivers the flavor.
I grew up eating a lot of Italian cookies, so naturally, I learned to love biscotti from a young age. In a family where parents often gave their children small spoonfuls of sweetened espresso, it’s not wonder dipping a biscotti into a cup of coffee became my favorite end to any gathering.
These biscotti have the same spirit of those cookies I grew up eating. Every once in a while, you come across a biscotti that’s just a bit too soft, a cookie with a bit of give in the middle that makes it chewier than it is crunchy. Not these. These are crunchy and crispy and they hold up when dunked into a cup of coffee or tea to still give some bite even when softened a little.
These biscotti start with an almond and pecan praline–not the kind of pralines you’d find in the south, but the kind you might see on an episode of Bake Off where they pour caramel over nuts only to grind it all up in a food processor. The nuts are toasted to bring out their flavors. You pour caramel over them (make sure to line your baking sheet with parchment or silicone for easy peeling, wax paper will melt under the heat), let it cool, and then toss them into the a food processor to grind until you’re left with small crumbs and some chunks of nuts.
After that, the biscotti dough is pretty straight forward. You mix together the oil and sugar, add in the eggs which add a bit of volume to the mixture and the vanilla to amp up the flavor, then begin to slowly mix in the dry ingredients, white chocolate, and the blitzed up praline. The dough may be a bit sticky when you go to form it into flattened logs, but a bit of flour on the hands will help. I actually found these to be less sticky than my other biscotti recipes just because they were so chock full of goodies.
Once these get their first bake, leave them to cool on their pans before transferring to a cutting board. I use a serrated knife to just chop through the logs (no sawing back and forth) which then get lined back up on a baking tray to bake again.
Once cooled, these will harden into perfect, crunchy, sweet, and nutty biscotti.
| Prep Time | 30 minutes |
| Cook Time | 45-55 minutes |
| Passive Time | 10 minutes |
| Servings |
biscotti
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- 200 grams granulated sugar
- 200 grams almonds toasted
- 75 grams pecans toasted
- 7 grams unsalted butter
- 1 squeeze lemon
- 295 grams all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 89 mL olive oil
- 177 grams granulated sugar
- 2 eggs large
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 175 grams white chocolate chips
- 300 grams praline *
Ingredients
Almond and Pecan Praline
White Chocolate and Praline Biscotti
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- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat and spread the almonds and pecans out. Toast in the oven for 8-10 minutes, stirring halfway through. The nuts will be darker in color and you'll start to smell them. Remove from the baking sheet from the oven and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, warm the sugar and butter over low-to-medium heat. Give the pan a shake to evenly coat the bottom of the pan with the sugar and keep a close eye on the pan. You'll notice that the sugar around the sides of the pan will begin to melt first. As the sugar begin to melt, give the pan a swirl or use a rubber spatula to pull the caramel into the middle of the pan, covering the unmelted sugar and moving the unmelted sugar to the edges. As more sugar begins to caramelize, give it a stir until all of the sugar has melted and let it cook for a couple of minutes until you're left with a deep amber color. Once the caramel reaches a deep amber, remove from the heat. Quickly stir in one squeeze of lemon juice (be careful, the caramel may bubble a bit). Immediately pour the caramel mix over the toasted nuts. Leave to set at room temperature or place in the fridge or freezer to hurry up the cooling process.
- Once cooled, use a food processor to blitz the praline into mostly crumbs with some small chunks of nuts still visible. Note: you may need to do this in 2-3 steps because it won't all fit into the food processor at once.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet, or two medium baking sheets, with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat the oil and sugar on medium high for about 2 minutes, until the sugar is fully coated in the oil.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix until fully combined and light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and mix until fully incorporated.
- On low, beat in 1/2 of the dry ingredients and mix until the dough just starts to come together. Add in the second 1/2 and mix until just combined.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add in the white chocolate chips and the praline, and beat on low until evenly distributed. Be careful not to overmix the dough.
- Using the rubber spatula, split the dough in half. On the prepared baking sheet, shape the dough lengthwise into two flattened logs about 3" x 10" or 3" x 11". The logs should be just about 3/4-1" in height. (If using one large baking sheet, try to shape your logs along the edges as they will spread while baking and you don't want them to bake into one another).
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. In the meantime, lower the oven to 300°F.
- Transfer the two logs to a cutting board or countertop. Using a serrated knife, cut diagonally into 1/2" thick slices.
- Line the baking sheet(s) with another piece of parchment paper and line up the sliced cookies so that one of the cut sides faces up.
- Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes at 300°F. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet. The biscotti will feel soft while hot, but they will harden and dry out as they cool.
- Once cool, pour yourself a cup of coffee and tea and enjoy!
*You should have extra praline. Save and use in another batch of cookies or sprinkle on top of ice cream or oatmeal.