Espresso-Glazed Hazelnut Biscotti

I'm having a breakdown over butter crisis,

and am in a serious food rut.

I've been working five days a week for the last few weeks (not complaining, it's been rad) and the weekends have been filled with all things to do with celebrating. Birthdays, housewarmings, the fact that it's Friday...

When I have had time to cook, at night time, the photos come out horribly lit, and there is no way I'm going to reveal their horribleness to you, even if they did taste better than a kick in the shins.

So anyway, coffee is what I need, and so coffee is what I'm serving up today.

Coffee glazed biscuits. Biscotti if we're being fancy.

I don't know if there was something wrong with the recipe, or if i'm suddenly a screaming mess when it comes to baking (too much Kahlua and too much espresso in the glaze?), because these definitely don't look like the picture in the magazine.

But you know what?

I'm shredding that picture to little bits, because I somehow managed to save these from an untimely, soggy death, and double baked them into half moons of crunch filled with nutella. If you care that they don't look as perfect as the picture, then poo poo to you!

Espresso Glazed Hazelnut Biscotti
Adapted from Gourmet Traveller

Makes approx 25-30 biscuits


Biscotti
40 gm soft, unsalted butter, softened
55 gm (¼ cup) caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
100 gm (2/3 cup) plain flour
50 gm hazelnut meal
1 tsp baking powder

Espresso glaze
240 gm (1½ cups) pure icing sugar, sieved
45 ml espresso coffee
45 ml Kahlua
15 gm butter
½ tsp vanilla bean paste

nutella, to sandwich

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
With an electric mixer, beat the caster sugar and butter together until pale and creamy.
Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until smooth and combined. Stir in flour, hazelnut meal and baking powder and mix until combined. Transfer mixture to a piping bag with a plain nozzle and pipe 2.5cm rounds of the mixture onto a baking paper-lined tray. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown (depends how crunchy you like your biscotti, I like it really crunchy). Cool for 5 mins.

For the glaze, mix all ingredients together in a small saucepan until smooth and just warm. Drop four biscuits into the saucepan at a time and turn them over with a fork to coat. Drain excess icing then place on a wire rack over a baking tray and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Place the biscuits (still on the wire rack), back into the oven for 10 more minutes to crisp up. Remove and cool completely. Sandwich two biscuits together with a dollop of nutella and serve with coffee.