A great way to drink your favorite liqueur or dessert wine is dunking biscotti. In Forence, we dunked biscotti in a sweet dessert wine. For breakfast, we dunked in our espresso….Whatever you decide, these biscotti are absolutely delicious!

A few suggested pantry variations 1) lemon and trail mix (nuts, raisins), 2) cranberry and almond and 3) cranberry and walnut. I have a photo on 3-5-2010 of the biscotti and also featured in my book “Breaking Bread in L’Aquila”.

Makes about 3 dozen

1/2 cup vegetable, canola oil, or unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup of the addition of your choice, like coarsely chopped nuts (pecans, pistachios, or walnuts), cranberries, or chocolate chips (it can also be a combination!)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix the oil (or cream the butter) and sugar together in a large bowl. Add the vanilla, and the eggs one at a time and stir until well blended.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring constantly. Add your nuts or any other addition. Continue mixing until well blended (don’t over mix). The dough will be slightly sticky, so you should flour your hands to work with it.

Divide the dough into either 2 logs (12 x 2) or 4 logs (6 x 2), depending on the size of your baking sheet. Make sure you place them several inches (at least 3 inches) apart because they will expand.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the logs are light brown. Let cool for 10 minutes.

Then turn the heat down to 275ºF. Cut the logs, using a sharp, serrated knife, into diagonal slices, about 3/4-inch long. You can place them on their sides (or stand them up-right on the baking sheet) to bake them for an additional 10 minutes. (This is why they are called twice-baked!) Cool before serving.

Tip: when you are cutting the biscotti logs before baking for the additional 10 minutes, you end up with little bits and pieces of the biscotti. If you are not planning to eat them right away, I would freeze them.

You can cut them in smaller pieces and serve with ice cream or dip the ends in coffee liquor and add a dolup of Mascarpone cheese and sprinke cocoa. A few examples but I’m sure you have other creative ideas too.

Don’t forget….The net proceeds of this book will be donated to the restoration efforts of the earthquake of L’Aquila.

a presto,

maria