Biscotti

I always get asked what my favorite sweet is, and I never have a good answer because it depends on so many things. I'm never very predictable when it comes to what I like or what I want to eat, but I'm usually not one to turn down a cookie- especially a biscotti. I have posted a variation on Mark Bittmans biscotti recipe from How to Cook Everything. As with all of his recipes this is a basic biscotti recipe with ideas for variations. If you've never looked through this book, it's a great cookbook to add to your collection- it is very comprehensive and reliable with variations for almost all recipe's that allow for a lot of flexibility and creativity. I have written the basic recipe below and then I'll add a variation section with the variation I used in the picture and will come back to add to it.

Biscotti (adapted from How to Cook Everything)

4 TBS butter softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Variations:
Whole wheat orange chocolate: Substitute flour for whole wheat pastry flour. When creaming sugar and butter together add the zest of one orange. At the end when combining the dry ingredients with the wet add in 1 cup chopped dark chocolate.

Pre Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix completely before adding the next. Then add in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix dough until you no longer see any flour. The dough will be very stiff by now. On a greased cookie sheet (or line with parchment paper) form the dough into one long log that is about 2 inches wide. You can either make one long log or two shorter ones. Bake for about 30 minutes- until the log begins to turn a golden brown and it feels firm on top in the center of the log. Turn the oven down to 250 degrees and let the logs cool. Once they are cool enough to handle, slice on a bias(using a serrated knife), into about 1/2 inch thick slices and lay them back on the sheet pan. Bake another 15 minutes, turn them over and bake about another 15 minutes until they are dried out. They may feel slightly soft when you take them out of the oven, but as they cool they will harden.