BellaBoo

I have been making my own Biscotti for years. It's so easy. It makes a terrific food gift.

Here is the basic recipe. I add dried cranberries, nuts, dip in melted chocolate etc. Do not use artificial almond or lemon flavoring. That stuff has an awful flavor. Use the real a extract. Real vanilla doesn't matter if you are heating it. In a national test chefs couldn't tell baked goods using imitation from real vanilla. Other artificial or imitation flavors had a big difference. Save you money to buy the real almond and lemon. I use real vanilla bean extract only in non baked foods and artificial in most all baked goods.

Biscotti

The ingredients:

3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 cups of sifted flour
4 eggs
2 tsp of baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup sliced almonds can add 1 cup dried berries (soaked in hot water for 5 min. and patted dry)

The process:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl at medium speed until well blended. The
consistancy will be sticky and like most cookie dough. This takes about 3 minutes.

Sprinkle some flour on a board, rub your hands with flour, and place dough on board.
Knead the dough lightly, and keep sprinkling with flour until dough is smooth and
only slightly sticky.
Cut the dough in half, and roll out to the size of 4 by 12 inches,
and about 1/2 inch thick. Do the same with the remaining dough.
Place both rolled out biscotti on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees f .
Remove from oven, and cut each biscotti into slices 1/2 inch thick. This must be done while the
dough is hot. You will end up with about 40 biscotti. Turn each slice on its side and
bake again at 425 degrees f. for 3 minutes. This will toast the biscotti, and make
them nice and crunchy. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes. Dip Biscotti in melted chocolate and sprinkle with crushed nuts if desired.