Biscotti: Recipes from the Kitchen of the American Academy in Rome, Rome Sustainable Food Project

As others have stated, this is not a book about biscotti. There are some Swiss, American and Australian recipes and many cookies that are not biscotti.However, the fact that all the recipes are scaled in grams is a step in the right direction and I will be working my way through this book. It’s such a pleasure not to have to guess what the author means by a cup of flour: is it fluffed up and spooned in, just spooned in or dipped and scooped. Are the Italian eggs the same weight as American eggs (no they are not). Are we using a cup of superfine sugar, regular sugar or démarra sugar because all those have different weights.What a relief that the authors acknowledge that home bakers are capable of getting a scale and weighing out their ingredients for a more consistant result.

Let me begin by stating that I am not a novice baker. This is an adorable looking little book. I wanted to love it. I have been a fan of Alice Waters for many years and I love the Little Bookroom format .The photographs are lovely, the paper is very nice quality.The issue of it being titled “ Biscotti ” has been addressed by so many people that I will not weigh in on it.To begin, many of the ingredients within the recipes are not pantry items for most Biscotti /cookie bakers in the U.S. (In addition, several of the recipes call for bitter almonds which the recipes acknowledge are not available in the States. It is suggested that apricot or peach kernels be substituted for the bitter almonds. It is my understanding that peach kernels are poisonous since they also contain cyanide. I may be incorrect about that. Anyway, I could not find them. Organic apricot kernels are available from Amazon for about $15.98 for ½ lb.)I have baked my way through only five (5) of the recipes within the book. The Cantucci di Prato and the Tozzetti Alle Nocciole were delicious and very “pure” tasting. I did need to adjust cooking temperature and cooking time (which the book does caution may be necessary) and I did not permit the logs to cool completely before slicing. (Too many crumbed logs under my belt to follow that advice.)The dough for Biscotti Regina, when made as directed, would not hold together for me. I was able to save the dough by adding a small splash of ice water but I feel this or some other ingredient/instruction should have been included within the recipe for this contingency. I went over the ingredients and instructions innumerable times. It certainly could have been something I did incorrectly but this really is not a complex recipe and it should have come together easily.The coup came with the Biscotti di Miele. This recipe, for me, was totally unworkable.. The recipe cautions that you may need to “knead in” the last cup of flour by hand. With two and one half cups of flour remaining to be added, the dough was so stiff that I was afraid I would break my mixer (one of those older indestructible K5A Kitchenaid mixers). I switched to the dough hook. That permitted me to incorporate an additional half cup of flour. I drafted my husband to attempt to knead in the remaining flour. The dough was far to stiff for any additional flour to be added. Once again I reviewed the ingredients and instructions and to the best of my knowledge I did not leave out/add anything not required and I followed the directions.( I should have known better when I saw the texture of the honey with the sugar dissolved in it but I assumed the authors knew better than I did.)I began re-reading some of the recipes which I had not made. Several of them seemed as though they would yield very stiff (perhaps unworkable) dough. At this juncture, most probably, I will not use these recipes again. I will look forward to someone telling me that they have had good luck with particular recipes. As it is I find this to be a delightfully written book but one which should not be utilized as a recipe book for biscotti.Regretfully, I am giving it two stars but I would have liked to give it 2 1/2 . (I have not discussed the Cantucci Di Noci E Cannella. The recipe worked.). I am of the opinion that more time should have been spent in “testing” these recipes for the non-professional kitchen. It really is a very frustrating experience to waste time and ingredients (expensive ones).

Better quality book than expected... great price

Wonderful recipes, from basic to slightly complicated. If you like Italian cookies, I highly recommend this book!I can't even really explain why it's so good, but the cookies speak for themselves. In particular I use many of the recipes in this book to make 'log' style cookies, where you wrap and freeze the unbaked dough in a log shape.Using this method, I build a stockpile of different types of cookie logs, so that for any occasion, I can have a variety of fresh cookies all baked at the same time... A huge time saver! Every recipe I have tried has been uniquely delicious.I may have bought this originally thinking they were American cafe style biscotti, but I'm so glad for this mistake. This is of the few recipe books I will always want to keep on hand.

As for the negative review because the book contains no "biscotti" recipes, the reviewer is correct. This book has no "biscotti" or what we Americans have come to know as biscotti recipes.Just as Italian grandmothers tend to refer to all long, strand pasta as spaghetti, this book refers to crisp cookies as biscotti. If you are looking for a lovely book to add to your collection, please consider this one. The pictures are charming and the recipe selection is perfect - a little bit of everything. There are no ooey-gooey chocolate brownie type sweets, but the kind of cookies you can mail, share and keep in a cookie jar to enjoy days later with tea or coffee. If you like walnuts, pictachios or pine nuts, this book is for you. I LOVE it.

This is a small book, but I was very pleased by the number and variety of Italian cookie recipes it contained (and not just what you may know as a "biscotti"). And I'm a big cookie baker who already has over 50 cookie cookbooks!

Perhaps it was just in my haste at purchase time but this is NOT a recipe book for making Biscotti. The name would most certainly imply that it was but there is one ONE recipe in the entire book for biscotti. The rest of the book consists of various cookie recipes. I do understand the Italian word for cookie is most closely biscotti but then, we are not in Rome are we.... The book title is very misleading and my wife was not only disappointed but quite surprised to see that it contained really nothing that she wanted. She loves Biscotti and wanted to have a variety and this is NOT the book to purchase for that OR for anything else in my opinion. Don't waste your money.

Quite frankly I thought that this book would be about what Americans call Biscotti not cookies. However, it is full of authentic Italian cookie recipes, great photos and stories.

I bought this over a year ago and it is the most used biscuit recipe book. In fact I put other biscuit recipe cards into the book and use it as the biscuit bible. I spent 3 years living in Italy so prefer this style of biscuit. I also bought the Pasta volume but this has disappeared to my son's house in London - also a good, practical book.The book format is good -hardback but not large.

I have made three of the recipes by now (the walnut jam cookies, the snowballs and Lucia's cookies) and am looking so much forward to trying the rest. They have all been wonderful so far, even though Lucia's cookies got too flat because of my using too much eggwhite in the dough.The cookies are varied, and I love the many recipes highlighting different kinds of nuts. They are equally nice in the afternoon with a cup of tea or as an after dinner treat.I feel I wll become a cookie baker after this.What I especially like is that the cookies are so elegant and mostly not too sweet. The recipes are easy to follow.Highly recommend it.

Haven't tried the recipes yet but they all appear to be 'do-able' but I am a bit challenged by the need for : half an eggwhite. Decided to double the recipe to save the mess!!

wonderful recipes, wonderful text

Not what I expected, lacking old fashion italian cookie recipes.I'm certain I'm not the only person that enjoys viewing an image of the finished product which this book lacks. Every recipe should have an image. How would one know what the finished item SHOULD look like. If Im forced to Google the image, why wouldn't I simply Google the recipe for free? Not what I expected this book to be. Less family pics more biscotti pics please!