Biscotti

Ciao! 

With the cold weather we've been having lately, everyone's reaching for hot drinks.  What goes better with coffee or tea than Biscotti? 

Growing up, I remember visiting Grandma & Grandpa Carbone a lot.  Being a typical Italian Grandma, you couldn't visit without eating something and you usually headed out the door after your visit with a bag of biscotti and sometimes a miniature loaf of homemade bread too!  Grandma has many recipes for biscotti in her recipe boxes (and also multiple recipes for Scalili & Ginetti, amongst others), this particular one is clearly well-used and is noted "my revised version". 

Biscotti

8 C Flour - or more            3 tsp Baking Powder
7 Eggs                                 3 TBS Anise Seed
1 3/4 C Sugar                     Anise Oil - a few drops
Salt     
1/2 C Melted Butter
1/2 C Oil

Beat eggs real well - add sugar, gradually add oil & butter, then dry ingredients.  Knead until dough is nice & smooth.  From into loaves & put in the refrigerator for a couple of hrs. (you don't have to do this but I find they come out better.)  Bake in 375 degree oven until brown - around 15 min.  Take out, slice diagonally & put back on cookie sheets to toast.

Chris' Notes:  One of the variations I noticed amongst the Biscotti recipes was the use of melted butter vs. softened butter.  I've always used softened, but I'm definitely going to try them with melted butter since it's often very difficult to get butter to soften in my house in the winter.  You don't need to worry about spacing the biscotti apart on the cookie sheet for the toasting step - they won't spread so pile them on.  You'll love the smell of these as they bake!  By the way, they are great with a glass of wine too. ;)

Felice cucinare!