Before I get started I want to wish everyone a merry (and belated) Christmas. My attempt to blog throughout the holiday completely failed. If you’ve ever worked retail during this lovely season, you understand. Moment of silence for us. Almost every party I’ve been to in the past week I arrived straight from work. Although I did get to indulge on some rockin’ food, none was my own. Sadness. Now that the season is coming to an end (more sadness) and the retail world has mildly calmed down (less sadness), I have much more time for you all. Speaking of, guess what Santa brought me this year? This awesome (and finally functional) laptop! It’s high-tech, which explains why I have the manual highlighted & pinned to my wall, and it’s touch screen! It’s been a few years since I’ve had a laptop that works and I’m kinda likin’ it. Santa also got me a kitchen aid mixer! More baking. More blogging. Although the laptop was completely unexpected, I’ve been aware of the kitchen aid for a few months. One day my mom saw an awesome sale and scooped it up for $250 less than the original price. It was a deal and we were sold. I made the promise to wait until Christmas and it could not have come soon enough. I have so many recipes lined up, from angel food cake, chocolate meringues, hotel butter, foccacia, and my number one choice: biscotti.
Since I knew I would be getting the mixer on Christmas and our family Christmas party is always the week after (and I have a biscotti lovin’ fam), I planned out this recipe quite well. I did some research, read some reviews, and narrowed it down to Giada’s Holiday Biscotti recipe. I kept the recipe the same, except I did omit the chocolate and sprinkles. Since I did read over several other recipes, I found her suggested cooking time to be a littttle much. I cut that back by a few minutes and everything came out great! The dough came together quick and I had no problems with it falling apart. I split my dough into two pieces, then rolled them out into 12″ logs. This made smaller cookies, so if you want larger ones, just use the entire dough for one log. The cranberries gave some tang and the pistachios gave saltiness. The perfect combination. It wasn’t very sweet, so maybe next time I’ll add a teaspoon or two of vanilla.
All you need to form the dough are your hands. Just form the dough into a log, roughly 12″ long and 3″ wide. I wanted more biscotti so like I said, I made two logs. From here the process is simple. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, cool for 15 minutes, slice, then bake again for 10-15 minutes.
aaaannnd this is when I start my coffee up. Because you know, coffee gives us energy…
…to eat more food (my holiday strategy).
- 2 c. all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1 t. lemon zest
- 1/4 t. salt
- 3/4 c. sugar
- 1 stick unsalted butter - room temp.
- 2 eggs
- 1 handful of pistachios
- 1 handful of cranberries (preferably dried)
- Preheat oven to 350
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and butter until creamy (with paddle attachment). Add the salt and zest and mix until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, until each are fully combined.
- Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until batter forms. Fold in cranberries and pistachios.
- Lay the batter on a prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Form into a 12" log (can divide into 2 logs).
- Bake for 25 minutes.
- Take out of the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut the biscotti at a sharp angle to make biscotti pieces. I usually discard the first piece.
- Place individual pieces onto baking sheet and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Flip half way through.
- Dip in melted chocolate or dunk in coffee!
- Add anything you would like to your biscotti (almonds, hazelnuts, etc.).
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