Still waiting for winter: Christmas biscotti
By esther on Wednesday, December 13 2006, 22:11 - Cookies are cool - Permalink
The beginning of December marks the start of the Christmas baking season and with it are each family's cookie traditions. Some of my best memories were made in the kitchen with my mom and my sister reading over recipes, fine tuning our 'to make' list and then happily cranking out batch after delicious batch while the snow pounded down outside. Perfection was the obligatory testing following the baking marathon. Everyone had their favorite and for the most part the core sampling remained the same season to season. However, every year a new recipe would make the cut and join the ranks of our cookie elite.
The idea for this recipe was the fruit of yet another phone call and cookie pow-wow between my mom and me. Although it wasn't snowing when I baked them, these biscotti have made the grade and are officially my first Christmas batch of the season.
So what qualifies a good Christmas cookie? In my book, the cookie has to be sturdy because more often than not, batches are made ahead of time and frozen so that there is always a platter to pull out for drop-in guests. Sweetness is also an important factor. I tend to lean towards recipes that aren't too sweet (so that you can eat more of them). Nuts, citrus, warm spices and jam are some of the best ingredients and I tend to stay far far away from anything remotely linked to candied fruit and gooey icing.
These biscotti are flavorful but soft. The pine nut lemon combination is complex but definitely not overwhelming and are they form the perfect pairing with a strong Italian espresso served with a wedge of zest. Plus, with the pine nuts, it's like eating little bits of Christmas trees.
Pine and citrus biscotti
1/2 cup salted butter - room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp. lemon zest
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup pine nuts
In a bowl cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Mix in lemon juice and zest.
In a cast iron skillet roast pine nuts until light brown.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingrediants to butter. Fold in pine nuts.
Grease and flour baking sheet. Divide dough in half and form two logs about 12" long.
Bake the logs once for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 5-7 minutes.
Cut the logs into 1" wide slices. Be sure to support the sides of the biscotti log with your hand for a clean cut.
Return the slices to the oven for 15-20 minutes for a second baking.
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen biscotti
Comments
These biscotti look fantastic! In a few hours we will be off to Paris, staying with my parents outside of Paris, close to Versailles and Rambouillet. I can't wait, but I still have to go through the whole flying thing...ah if only I could get telestansported!!
Helen, Thank you! Hope you're enjoying your time in France! Let me know when you have the teletransportation thing down... I could use it too.