BISCOTTI

You could probably bake a different kind of cookie every day for a full year and not have to repeat the same recipe twice.  I have never tried that and you would need a few people people in your household to keep up with the cookie supply.   One of my favorite cookies is biscotti.  I like biscotti because it is a dry cookie and makes a great cookie for dunking in tea or coffee.  Biscotti, which is Italian in origin, is similar to mandelbrot (almond bread), a jewish dry cookie.  Before there was biscotti, I was making mandelbrot.  There are some small differences in the ingredients.  In the recipes I have, biscotti uses less oil.  Both of these two cookies requires twice baking.  After the first baking, the baked logs are sliced and put back into the oven to dry.  Here is one of the recipes I have.  I have adapted this from allrecipes.com.

BISCOTTI

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup olive oil

3/4 cup sugar or splenda

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 eggs

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup dried cranberries or chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups pistachio nuts or chopped almonds

DIRECTIONS:

1.              Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

2.             In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts, then beat in the eggs. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; gradually stir into egg mixture. Mix in cranberries/chocolate chips and nuts.

3.             Divide dough in half. Form two logs (12x2 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Dough may be sticky; wet hands with cool water to handle dough more easily.

4.             Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light brown. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 275 degrees F.

5.             Cut logs on diagonal into 3/4 inch thick slices. Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until dry; cool.  Makes about 3 dozen.