Biscotti

Now here is something a little sweet. We are approaching the holidays and in the house that I grew up in that meant fresh baking. It was the one time of year that both my Mom and my Grand both were in their respective kitchens baking away. The fare in my family consisted of sugar cookies, soft shortbread, rum balls and tarts three ways: cherry, butter, and mincemeat. So as I strike out on my own I have found something a little different to add to the holiday baking. Today we are going rock on some biscotti. The cool thing about this twice baked cookie is that it makes a great homemade and fancy sort of gift. Find some cheap jars with a flip lid at your local dollar store and fill them with these coffee friendly cookies and there you have a great gift at a low cost. On top of that, these cookies turned out great when I made them so give them a shot. Whether you are giving or you just want to eat them, they are pretty darn tasty.

            Just a little note here that you can add nuts or any other sort of dried fruit to this recipe and it works great. This is a riff on a recipe that I got from James Peterson’s Baking, it is like my baking bible. Let’s delve into some cookies shall we. So here we go with biscotti so put on The Decemberists, and bake your brains out.

Lemon Cranberry Biscotti with White Chocolate to the tune of Don’t Carry It All by The Decemberists

2 cups of flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp cinnamon

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup butter melted

¾ cup dries cranberries soaked for 30 minutes in warm water, drained

the zest of 3-4 lemons

½ a package of white chocolate chips

-preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper

-I use a stand mixer for this one but you can totally do it by hand. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and sugar.

-add eggs and butter and mix until the dough comes together. Mix in cranberries and lemon zest.

- roll dough into two logs about a foot long on the sheet pan and flatten with your hand so they are about 3 inches thick. Bake these suckers for about 30-35 minutes.

-yank them out and let them cool for about 15-20 minutes. As they cool lower your oven temperature to 300 degrees. Once cooled slice the dough on the diagonal into slices about the width of your index finger and lay them onto a freshly lined sheet pan and bake for another 30 minutes or until they turn golden brown.

-pull them out and let them cool completely on a cooling rack

-while they are cooling melt your chips in a double boiler and let stand for a couple of minutes

-smear the white chocolate on the bottoms of the biscotti and stick them in the fridge so the chocolate can set up

-shove them into jars for gifts or make a pot of coffee and enjoy yourself.

So there you have biscotti. Give it a go and let me know what you think.