I’ve been on a huge biscotti kick. It’s a great simple little breakfast when combined with coffee. It holds me over until lunch quite nicely. It’s also very easy to make. That and its ability to handle lots of different add-ins really make it a great treat to bake.

The Witch and I were having a good conversation around healing while I was making this. That’s the whole point of this blog. Help people heal, grow, and relearn, and eat tasty treats while doing it. I was so engrossed in the conversation I put the pistachios and cranberries in with the wet ingredients before I had mixed in the dry. Oh well. I popped in half the dry right then and there. There’s a decent amount of moisture in the American version of biscotti so maybe that’s what saved the day. It’s either that or the love from the conversation we were having. Either way it still came together quite nicely. It’s the oven as I’m writing this part. It’s on its second bake, so I guess we’ll really see how it goes.

The flavor profile came from Dani. She likes citrus flavors when it’s cold out. To hopefully offset some of the potential bright bitterness of the orange and lemon zest I added an additional quarter cup of sugar. After the first bake, once it was out of the oven, it was much easier to cut. It was far less crumbly than some of the other ones. It cut so smoothly. Maybe it’s the smaller chunks of dried cranberries and chopped pistachios. No idea. The kitchen has a bright smell as it’s baking. I’m going to struggle to wait for it to cool enough to eat.

Keep the conversations going and stay safe out there.

Ingredients

Biscotti:

• 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (1 stick)

• 1 Cup Granulated Sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

• 3/4 Cup dried cranberry

• Zest of 1 Orange

• Zest of 1 Lemon

• 1/2 Cup pistachios (chopped)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees (this will change later)

2. Line a baking pan with parchment paper

3. Cream the butter and sugar In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment on

4. Add the eggs and yolk to the creamed butter and sugar and mix

5. Mix in the vanilla, orange zest, and lemon zest

6. In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, and baking powder

7. Slow mix in the dried ingredients to the wet, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed

8. Chop the pistachios

9. Break up the clumps of dried cranberries

10. Mix in the chopped pistachios, and dried cranberries until just integrated

11. Place the dough on the parchment lined baking sheet, wet your hands slightly as the dough is sticky, and form into a loaf about 12” long 3” wide and 1” tall.

12. Bake for 30 minutes and remove from oven.

13. Reduce Oven temperature to 325

14. Let cool 5 minutes and then slice into 1/2 - 3/4” slices with a serrated knife, Separate slightly

15. Place back into the oven and bake an additional 30-35 minutes.

16. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes and then move to a cooling rack to cool

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