Semolina Biscotti

Semolina Biscotti are golden and buttery with a beautiful coarse texture from rich semolina flour. A delightful Italian inspired semolina cookie. This biscotti is not overly sweet and can be served with a savory meal!

I have another biscotti recipe for you and I know you're going to LOVE LOVE LOVE this one!

If you guys read my last post, you know why biscotti are literally my favorite cookies to make (aside from the fact I tend to gravitate towards Italian baked goods 😉 ).

In my last post, I covered all the reasons why biscotti are the best cookies, but here's a quick TL;DR recap for you...

1. Biscotti are the easiest cookies to make. Once the dough comes together you form it into a log, bake and then slice. Since you don’t have to scoop out dough into individual cookies, you can whip up a batch of biscotti FAST. 
2. Once you master making basic biscotti, you can get creative with flavors and add-ins. You guys know how much I love adding my own twist on things, and biscotti is so versatile! Don’t like nuts? Make biscotti without nuts! Add in spices, chocolate chips, dried fruit, extracts…It’s so great being able to throw in whatever you have in your pantry.
3. Biscotti are a ONE BOWL RECIPE and you only need ONE COOKIE TRAY.

My favorite thing about biscotti is the fact that you can get creative with flavors. I've always found that it is easy to experiment with a basic recipe (I hope to have that up for you guys soon!).

Semolina Biscotti 

Introducing Semolina Biscotti. Literally, my new favorite.

I don't know if Semolina biscotti is already a thing, but it needs to be. 

This recipe came to me when I was emptying out my pantry and found containers of two flours; graham and semolina. 

We are always making pasta and bread with semolina so this is a great way to use up any leftover semolina flour.

I immediately thought that these would both make excellent biscotti, so I texted some friends and took a vote.

Personally, I wanted to use the graham flour, but to my surprise, everyone voted for Semolina (all who participated were also Italian, so I guess it's not really that shocking).

What is semolina biscotti like?

The end result is nothing short of magic, I swear. This cookie perfectly highlights that buttery, golden, beautiful flour like nothing else I've ever had. Everyone in my family went absolutely bonkers for this cookie.

What is Semolina flour?

Semolina flour is Durham wheat that is coarsely ground. I've always been familiar with this type of flour because it is used a lot in Italian cooking (pasta, pizza...) & bread baking. Semolina flour is best known for helping to hold shape due to it's high-gluten content (it is a MUST for homemade pasta), but it also has a very rich, buttery flavor.

For this Semolina Biscotti, I split the flour mixture and used half all purpose flour & half semolina.

I think it created a nice balance; you can taste the flavor of semolina and the texture is more sandy (almost like how cornbread is) but the cookie bakes up perfectly and isn't tough (be careful when using high gluten flours because you don't want to over mix where that can happen!).

I have a similar recipe, Lemon Ricotta Cake, where I blend all purpose flour and cornmeal (semolina can also be used) which creates a beautiful texture & crumb. 

The thing I like most about this cookie is, you really don't think of dessert when you're eating it. It can certainly be dessert, but the flavor is more wholesome and we found ourselves snacking on it with our eggs at breakfast and meals at dinnertime, too.

Again, it reminds me of a slightly sweet cornbread and it oddly paired very well with a bowl of chili.

That fact makes it unusual for me to post here, since I only post desserts and sweet treats, but this recipe kind of falls right in between those lines.

It's too yummy for me to not share with you guys.

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