Olive Oil Biscottini (Biscottini Regina)

Wonderfully flavorful, and so simple to make, olive oil biscottini are perfect for dipping in your morning coffee or as a afternoon tea treat.

These addictive little cookies, originally from Palermo, are typical of the Sicilian cuisine.  I have found many various recipes in different cook books, some made with lard, some with butter or even olive oil. And in spite of my unconditional love for butter,I chose the olive oil version! Only because I didn't have any butter at home - and I was too lazy to go out, but I always have a bottle of good organic olive oil in my pantry. This particular recipe reminds me a lot of the Greek recipe for LADOKOULOURA, which simply means: olive oil cookies, but traditionally they add a bit of cognac or ouzo.
I will definitely try the butter version as well, but maybe with lavender and lemon zest instead of orange.

Ingredients: 

240 g all purpose flour

110 g granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

4 tbsp good quality olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

about 2 tsp orange zest (zest of one big orange)

sesame seeds for coating

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl combine together the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Add the eggs, olive oil, vanilla extract, orange zest and mix until dough is formed. You can do this by hand or you can throw all the ingredients into bowl of an electric mixer and work on low speed.
3. Divide the dough in half and roll each peace in 2.5cm thick rope. Cut into 2-5cm length, depends how big you want you biscottini to be. I like mine as a bite size cookies.
4. Tip the sesame seeds onto a deep plate and roll the pieces of dough to coat it all over. Place them on the sheet and bake for 15 minutes, until they are nicely browned on the bottom. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack until cookies are completely cool. Store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.