By now you’ve made your Christmas list and might be pondering what homemade food gifts to give this year. Will it be a chutney, granola, nuts or cookies? (Click these links for more tasty holiday food gift recipes!) My beef with cookies is that they tend to dry out, which is why I love biscotti so much.
These cookies are double baked, and of course, intended for dunking, so they have a longer shelf life. In this recipe, the biscotti are a smaller, compact size and I like that too.
If you want to get a bit more decadent, you could dip the final product in chocolate, so that half the cookie has a nice shell. Or pair the biscotti with a small package of your favorite coffee.
Biscotti and coffee or hot cocoa is a special treat. Or try them the traditional Italian way, dipped in the sweet wine Vin Santo. Here’s a link to lemon-almond biscotti recipe on my site that I think would be mighty tasty with Vin Santo.
Don’t forget about packaging! Check out places like The Container Store, Michael’s and www.nashvillewraps.com for ideas. Happy baking! -alyce eyster
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ tsp double acting baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 8 Tblsp unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup pecans, roasted and chopped
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tblsp vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a food processor, process the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Scrape the mixture into a bowl and add the chocolate and nuts. Stir to combine.
- Reserving 2 teaspoons of the eggs, combine the rest of the eggs with the vanilla and add to the flour mixture. Stir to combine and gently knead the dough into a ball. Flatten the dough into disc and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll into 12-inch logs. Flatten each log slightly, brush with the reserved egg and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until they are golden and springy to the touch.
- Cool the logs slightly and slice them in the diagonal (you should have about 10 to 12 biscotti per log).
- Bake the slices for about 10 to 15 minutes or until dry and crispy.
[This post might sound familiar because it was originally published last year but has been edited and updated to reflect new information and links. Happy Holidays! -ae]
Thanks for stopping by. Here's to great food and good thymes! -