This was my first successful biscotti recipe; it’s one that I have been making for a good three or four years, at least.
The recipe is scrawled on the bottom of a jaggedly-torn piece of paper, both back and front of which are covered with biscotti recipes. None of them were any good, except for this one. Actually, it can’t really be called a recipe because all I have written down is:
Orange
1 T. grated orange rind (more?)
dried cranberries?
I can tell, for no other reason than just because I can, that I’m supposed to follow the above recipe for Anise Biscotti, which I made the other day and accidentally left out half of the sugar, which caused the biscotti to end up tasting like that sand-coated popsicle stick I spoke of earlier, which, by the way, I have never tasted (the sandy popsicle stick, not the biscotti), which— Okay! I’ll stop!
Um, where was I? Oh yes. The non-sandy biscotti.
In this recipe, the classic combination of orange and cranberry won me over from the get-go. The dried cranberries add a sweet-tart chew that compliments and counters the citrus-y dryness. Mr. Handsome, not one to fawn over biscotti or any other dry Italian cookie, thoroughly appreciates this one. So, without further ado, I present to you…
Orange-Cranberry Biscotti
From my recipe file, kind of miraculously deciphered from my cryptic chicken-scratch
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter
2-3 tablespoons orange zest
2 eggs
3 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup dried cranberries
Beat together the sugar and butter. Add the eggs and orange zest and beat some more. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the dried cranberries.
Divide the dough into two parts and on an ungreased cookie sheet shape each half into a log, approximately three inches wide and ten inches long. Bake the logs at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, cool for 10-15 minutes, slice, and re-bake, this time at 325 degrees for 15-30 minutes, turning once. (For more thorough biscotti-baking instructions, go here.)
Store in an airtight jar.
3 Comments
Queenie
LOVE the biscotti. Thank you so much! And the card with my favorite flower, peonies. And the precious note. . .your biscotti are getting a blog post all to themselves, just you wait and see.
Sara
These sound quite delicious!
Anonymous
This is not biscotti-related, but I had a little birthday cake success yesterday that I thought you might like to know about, since you have two February birthdays in your family. Abi likes to decorate her May birthday cake with fresh flower petals such as violets and roses, with mint leaves as well. Sophie naturally wants to do the same thing, and was bummed for a while knowing that you can’t get flowers from the backyard in February. I had a flash of genius the other day and suggested that we could make a winter cake by cutting out little paper snowflakes to place on the chocolate brownies she wanted, then dust over with powdered sugar to make snowflake patterns. She was delighted to have a unique seasonal decoration.
Yesterday afternoon we each cut a snowflake, ironed them smooth, and when the brownie pan had cooled, she placed them on top and we dusted over them together. I carefully lifted each one off (so the sugar wouldn’t spill off the paper onto the new patterns) and we oohed and aahed over the pretty patterns. (Then Kirk went and put her ice cream right on top of her piece of brownie and half-obliterated her pattern, but at least we have leftovers…)
Now the pan half-full of snowflake cake is covered with a smooth sheet of plastic wrap, upon which are resting the four paper snowflakes, as if suspended in air. Wish I had a digital camera so I could send you a picture.
K
PS – This would also work with a white cake powdered with cocoa or cinnamon, I’ll bet.