Biscotti

Biscotto/i is Italian for cookie/s. However, in my family, biscotti usually referred to long, thin, hard anise flavored biscuits. Cookies were Christmas Butter Cookies. They were made during the annual baking extravaganza by my mother and her sisters. They were special for Christmas. Many shapes, sizes, with or without dried fruit, nuts, sugar crystal red or green sprinkles, and/or chocolate dipped. They made thousands of them! My mother tried to hide them from me so that there would be some left for Christmas. Of course, trying to hide a dark chocolate dipped butter cookie from a fat kid like me, was like trying to get a pork chop past a wolf!

And while Christmas Cookies were special, biscotti were staples. Mom baked biscotti every few weeks, year round. We always seemed to have a tin of them in the house to enjoy with coffee or tea. Bakery biscotti or supermarket Stella Doro's were for the 'americano'. When I went away to college, she would send them, along with other staples, in my care package. When she would visit me in my own home as an adult, she would bring fresh baked biscotti, more often than not. The last thing she ever cooked for me were biscotti. On one of her last visits to my home, she walked in with my father and was carrying a tin of biscotti, sort of. She was dealing with significant dementia and left out some key ingredients from the cookies. The tin contained wafer thin biscotti that crumbled when I tried to pick them up. I made a big fuss over how good they were and ate them with a spoon. While a tear or two rolled down my cheek as I finished the dust and realized the significance of the moment, Mom just smiled as she watched me eat. Watching family eat her food always brought a smile to her face.

I do not try to make my mother's biscotti recipe anymore, they just don't taste like hers. The following recipe is a hybrid of several I tried along the way.

Ingredients

Dry

3 1/4 cups (dry measure) all purpose flour

1 tblsp. baking powder

1/2  tsp. salt

Wet

3 extra large eggs - beaten

11/4 sticks unsalted butter - melted 

11/2cups (dry measure) sugar

1 tblsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. ground anise seed

1/2 cup (dry measure) dried cherries

1/2 cup (dry measure) crasins

Directions

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13" x 18" baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and mix together with a whisk. In a another large bowl, thoroughly mix all of the above listed wet ingredients. Add the dry mix into the wet using a large wooden spoon. Once well mixed, scrape the contents onto a floured work surface and divide in half. As the dough is sticky, use some flour on your hands and a little on the parchment paper, to form 2 loaves approximately 3"w x 16"l x 3/4"h. Space the loaves evenly from each other and the sides of the baking sheet as they will spread out during baking. Whisk an egg white and brush the top and sides of the loaves with the egg.

Bake on middle rack for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes. Discard the parchment paper. Place the cooled loaves on a cutting board and, using a serrated bread knife, cut the loaves into 1/2" slices and arrange on baking sheet, cut side up. Return to 350 degree oven for 10 minutes, remove tray, flip the biscotti to the other cut side up, and bake for 10 additional minutes. Remove tray from oven and cool biscotti completely before storing.

Buona fortuna!