Sunday, November 21, 2004

IMBB10 – Holiday Biscotti



This tenth go-round of the now famous Is My Blog Burning is hosted by Jennifer, aka The Domestic Goddess, and has as its theme “Cookie Swap”. Because of time constraints, I did not attempt to come up with a creation of my own, but instead turned to Epicurious for inspiration. When I came upon the Holiday Biscotti with Cranberries and Pistachios, I knew I’d found my cookie. They looked festive with red cranberries and green pistachios, sounded easy, and featured an ingredient that was new to me – pistachios.



I found shelled pistachios at Trader Joe’s, which made assembling the dough for these cookies extremely easy. The recipe indicates that the finished dough is sticky, but I found it was not difficult to handle. Forming the logs took just a minute or two and wasn’t messy at all. While baking, they smelled amazing – mostly from the butter and lemon, I think. There were a number of comments on the recipe at Epicurious that said a longer baking time was needed, so I upped the time to 33 minutes. After cooling I used a bread knife to slice the logs. There was some crumbling, but it wasn’t bad.



After a second bake and cooling, the cookies are finished with a dunk in some melted white chocolate and then briefly cooled in the refrigerator. I nibbled on the ends as I sliced the logs and ate one finished cookie. The cookies are delicious – the anise and lemon combination is wonderful and the white chocolate is the perfect final touch. I didn’t pick out a noticeable pistachio flavor, though. Maybe I need to eat another one…


13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love cranberry and pistachio biscotti! Yours look wonderful, especially with the white chocolate! I was wondering if you were going to do a Maida recipe for this event, but I guess that would interfere with your Mondays. You must be swimming in cookies by now. ;)
Alice

Anonymous said...

What a festive choice for the cookie swap, Cathy! This biscotti looks really quite yummy...I'm looking for a biscotti recipe for my wedding reception...this might end up being the one!

Thanks so much for participating in IMBB # 10!

Cathy said...

Alice - Thanks! Indeed, I am swimming in cookies! I've got both tomorrow's Maida cookies and these boxed up to bring into work tomorrow. I must get them out of the house! I was very ready to make some cookies that weren't chocolate - these were easy and fun to make.

Jennifer - Thank you! Wow, are you going to be baking for your own reception? Thanks again for hosting!

Reid said...

Hi Cathy,

I've never attempted making biscotti before, but you make it look so easy. The flavor combination sounds great! This is probably going to be something that I'm going to try, but instead of while chocolate, I may have to use dark chocolate (my favorite).

Thanks for sharing!

debbie koenig said...

Wow, Cathy, they're gorgeous! I baked biscotti for Christmas gifts one year and never tried it again--too impatient for the double-bake, I guess. But these just might inspire me to dig out those old recipes...

Anonymous said...

Hi Cathy! Your biscotti look gorgeous and the colours are so festive! I'm not a big fan of biscotti but these could definitely tempt me :)

Angela

Cathy said...

Hi Reid - thanks! You should try making biscotti - they're not all that difficult. There's a good basic recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Dipping these in dark chocolate sounds delicious!

Debbie - Thank you! My first experience with biscotti was a disaster and I stayed away from them for a long time, but now I've decided they're not all that hard and are a surefire hit!

Thanks Angela! You should definitely give biscotti another chance. Homemade are so much better than store-bought - and you don't break any teeth on them!

Anonymous said...

hi Cathy,
these look great!
I have to admit, having only ever tasted store-bought biscotti, I have never taken to them in a big way.
I think I may just have to try some home-made ones one of these days, and who knows... I may just fall in love with them ; )

Cathy said...

Hi Anon (Renee is that you? I think I recognize the wink!) - thanks! Oh, do give biscotti a try. I'm sure if you make some you'll find they're delicious! I fell in love with them when my brother's mother-in-law sent some to me while I was convalescing a couple of years ago. They were very plain and flavored with fennel seed - so good! These reminded me of those a little since they have anise seed in them.

Anonymous said...

haha! Cathy, you're getting to know me well! yep, that anonymous was me... I forgot to leave my name AGAIN!
sorry about that.

but I'm remembering this time ; )
(sorry, just couldn't resist that one)

Renee
www.shiokadelicious.com

Cathy said...

Hi Renee!!! ;)

Anonymous said...

Lovely looking biscotti, Cathy! I may now just be tempted to whip a batch of these out, on top of everything else, for Thanksgiving! :)

Cheers,
soleilMia

Cathy said...

Hi soleilMia - thanks! They're not hard, but sounds like you already have your hands full preparing for Thanksgiving!