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1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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2
Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
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3
Add egg and egg white and continue beating until creamy, then add the vanilla,vanilla bean (scrapings) salt and buttermilk and mix until combined.
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4
Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda together into a medium bowl.
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5
Add the dry stuff to the wet stuff in the mixing bowl, but do it a little at a time.
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6
When all the flour's in, toss in the finely chopped almonds, but save a couple tablespoons of the nuts for something we'll do later.
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7
Don't mix this dough too much or it might toughen up; you only want to mix it enough to get all the ingredients incorporated, and then you'll have tender biscotti.
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8
You may want to use your hands to work everything together as the dough thickens.
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9
Form the dough into a rectangular loaf on a lightly greased or parchment paper-lined sheet pan.
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10
The dimensions of the loaf should be somewhere around 10 inches long and 5 inches wide, and about an inch thick in the middle.
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11
Sprinkle the left over almond bits over the top of the loaf, then bake it for 30 to 35 minutes or until the top has turned light brown.
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12
Remove this now puffed-up loaf from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes or as long as it takes for it to be cool enough to handle and slice.
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13
When it's cool, move the biscotti loaf to a cutting board.
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14
Use a long serrated bread knife to slice the dough across its width.
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15
Make slices that are approximately 3/4-inch thick.
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16
Keep the slices standing up and move them back to the sheet pan.
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17
Position them in rows on the pan so that they aren't touching, then pop the whole pan back into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are crisp on the outside.
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18
When you remove the cookies from the oven, keep them out on the sheet pan for several hours or overnight so that they completely dry out.
