Crumbly Biscotti — Nick Malgieri (2024)

FAQs

What to do if biscotti dough is too crumbly? ›

When mixing the biscotti dough, you may find that it's dry and crumbly. Persevere. Use your hands to gently squeeze the batter until it begins to form a dough. If it's really dry, you may need to add an extra egg or some other liquid related to the recipe such as extract or liqueur.

A: Overbaking the logs of dough during the first baking can make the slices crumble as you are cutting them. Also, even if the logs of dough are perfectly baked, they will crumble if they are sliced while still warm, so be patient. The logs crumble when you use a dull knife, too.

For crumble-free cutting, spray baked biscotti logs with water. Once your biscotti logs are baked it's time to slice them — hopefully without crumbling! I like to mist the logs with water and wait 5 minutes, then cut.

If your biscotti are too soft then it is likely that the cookies were not baked for long enough second time around.

If your cookie dough is dry and crumbly, there are a few things you can do to fix it. First, try adding more liquid to the dough. This can be milk, water, or even just a little bit of extra oil. If that doesn't work, you can try kneading the dough for a few minutes to help it come together.

The most obvious and easiest fix is to add more liquid. Very slowly, teaspoon by teaspoon, add a liquid that you've already included to your dough. Mix after each teaspoon—you don't want to over-saturate it and risk gooey dough. Don't overmix, because this might lead to the problem you're trying to fix!

The trickiest parts of making them are the mixing and the shaping and baking. Just like biscuits, you can't overmix the dough. I found that if the dough is mixed too much, the biscotti becomes dense and heavy.

Because the dough can be sticky and hard to form, it's important to chill the batter for a good 30 minutes before baking the first time. Prepare a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper then dust it with a little flour. Transfer the batter to the baking sheet and chill in the fridge.

Are they better with oil or butter? So a traditional biscotti recipe would have neither but I use melted butter in mine for some extra richness. I would not recommend using oil.

Most baked goods need a leavening agent to make them rise, and if you leave it out, your cake or your cookies will fall flat. Baking powder makes dough rise because it contains both a base and an acid in dried form.

Why is my biscotti too crumbly? ›

Don't overbeat the eggs. You want just enough air pockets to add some crispiness and texture, but not so many that you get a lot of crumble in your biscotti instead. Don't overmix the batter. You just want to see all of your ingredients come together and that's it!

If your biscuits are falling apart…

If this sounds familiar, you could be adding too much flour to your dough without knowing it, disrupting the ratio of dry to wet ingredients.

Baking soda – baking soda helps the biscotti rise and spread. Make sure that your baking soda isn't expired. Sugar- we used granulated sugar for this recipe. You can use caster sugar as well.

To fix dry and crumbly cookie dough by adding more liquid, start slowly by mixing in one extra teaspoon at a time. Add more of whatever liquid is in the original recipe, be it water, eggs, or milk (for example).

Only thing I can think of is to run it through a food processor to pulverize it and then add a bit of oil, water, and an egg before baking again. Or add water, let it soak in, then add an egg or two to the soft crumbs before baking again.