Cornmeal Currant Biscotti with Lemon Zest

I watched an old episode of Baking with Julia today (not an uncommon occurrence).  What was unusual was that I actually had all the required ingredients (including time) for the first recipe made on the show!  Even currants!  When have I ever had currants before?!  It was a biscotti miracle.

While the recipe calls for cold butter, I did pull it out and let it sit on the counter while I got everything else ready.  Hey, the baker on Julia's show told me I should.

Also, before I did anything else I rinsed the currants under cold running water so they didn't stick together.  Now, I've never actually used currants before.  I didn't realize they would smell so...boozy.  Is that normal?

I combined all the dry ingredients first: cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. (Sorry, I didn't get around to taking pictures of each step, won't happen again. :) ) I just swished them around with my fingers to mix them up.  

I left the cornmeal mixture to talk things over while I whisked the wet ingredients, egg and egg yolk, vanilla, and, of course, the grated lemon zest. (mmm...).

The butter was a little softened by now (really, just barely).  I cut it into the cornmeal mixture with my fingers.  Okay, truth be told I started to cut it in with a pastry cutter, but it just got to be a pain.  It was so much easier and more controlled to do it by hand.  The butter combined with the cornmeal smelled like corn muffins fresh from the oven, slathered with butter...delicious!

I added the currants to the cornmeal/butter mixture and tossed it around to coat the currants.  Then I added the wet ingredients and mixed it with my hands.  One of the best parts of baking is getting messy!  The recipe said the dough might seem more dry than other biscotti recipes, because of the cornmeal.  I live in a very humid climate and didn't have that problem.  In fact, when I scooped the dough on the floured counter, I had to add more flour as I kneaded, it was still so sticky.  It came together quickly and was easy to shape into the 2 flat logs.

After the initial baking, I cooled the logs for almost 10 minutes.  I might have been too eager to sliced the biscotti though, because a few cookies crumbled.  Nothing too significant.  And my family didn't feel inconvenienced by having to eat the scraps.  But, still.  What's the trick?  Slice when hot?  Sliced when slightly cool?  I never know.  Guess I'll have to bake more and figure it out!

The original recipe also said to bake the sliced biscotti for 15 minutes.  Once sliced and arranged on the pan I baked for 8 minutes then flipped them over and baked for the other 7 minutes.  Just made more sense to me.

These would be great as is, or crumbled over a yummy berry ice cream or sorbet for the summer!

Cornmeal Currant Biscotti

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into 6-8 pieces
1 cup currants
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk (reserve the egg white)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Rinse the currants in the cold running water and allow to air dry on a paper towel.
3. In a large bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in the butter pieces using your fingers until the mixture resembles course crumbs.  Gently stir in the currants.
4. In a small bowl, whisk the egg, egg yolk, lemon zest, and vanilla.  Add to the dry ingredients.  Stir with a rubber spatula or your hand, until the mixture (mostly) comes together.  Scoop the dough out onto a well floured surface and knead a few more times till it comes together completely.
5. Divide the dough in half and roll each half into a log.  Place the logs onto the parchment paper and flatten the tops so the dough is about 3/4 inch tall and about 2-2 1/2 inches wide.
6. Bake for 20 minutes in the top half of the oven, until the logs just start to brown. Remove from the oven and cool for about 10 minutes. Lower the oven temp to 325 degrees F.
7. Carefully transfer the warm logs to a cutting board and slice diagonally with a sharp, serrated knife so each cookie is about 1/2 inch wide.  Place the slices back on the baking sheet.  No need to separate the cookies by much, they won't grow any more.  Bake for 8 minutes.  Gently flip the cookies over and bake an additional 7-8 minutes or till lovely and golden.

Adapted from Baking with Julia "Italian Cookies & Biscotti with Nick Malgieri"