White Chocolate Drizzles Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti
Italian biscotti are incredibly easy to make! No reason to shy away from these delicious cookies -- they are simply "baked twice" which is the meaning of "biscotti". The cranberries plus the pistachios have such a festive Christmas color combination of green and white. And the white chocolate drizzled on top is simply over the top!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1-½ cup sugar plus extra for sprinkling on the pre-cooked biscotti
- 3 eggs for the biscotti mixture plus 1 egg for brushing on the pre-cooked biscotti
- 2 ts p. pure vanilla or vanilla extract
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1-½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. sea salt
- ⅓ cup amaretto liquor
- 1-½ cups dried cranberries
- ¾ cup white chocolate chips or 7 squares of white chocolate
- 1-¾ cups shelled pistachios
- 1 - 2 cups melted white chocolate for dipping or drizzling
- red and green colored sugar or sprinkles optional for Christmas
Instructions
- In a large bowl, blend the butter and sugar well.
- Beat in eggs, one at a time.
- Add in the vanilla and amaretto liquor.
- In a separate bowl combine the four, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Slowly blend in the flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture and mix well.
- Fold in the cranberries, white chocolate and pistachios; dough will be sticky.
- Divide dough into two to three equal sized portions.
- On a floured surface or cutting board, shape each portion into a long 2-1/2" wide logs; these expand while baking, so shape the logs according to your preference.
- With your hands, gently ‘flatten’ each of the logs a little bit.
- Brush a beaten egg on each log and generously sprinkle sugar on top of each log.
- Carefully place logs on an ungreased baking sheet, spaced 3 inches apart.
- Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 25 minutes or until firm and lightly brown on the edges.
- Cool for 5 minutes.
- While warm, yet cool enough to handle with your hands, transfer logs to a cutting board.
- With very little pressure, use a serrated knife to cut the logs diagonally into 1? slices.
- Allow the knife to do the work for you and do not press down on the biscotti so they don’t break.
- Place the slices ‘cut-side’ down on the ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown and remove from the oven to turn each over.
- Return the slices to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes.
- Remove from oven and set the biscotti on wire racks to cool.
- Melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler over simmering water.
- Remove chocolate from the heat.
- With a fork, drizzle the chocolate over biscotti and/or dip the biscotti into the chocolate on one end of each.
- Place the chocolate dipped or drizzled biscotti on wax or parchment paper and allow to set for about 30 minutes.
- For Christmas, sprinkle your favorite red and green colored sugar or sprinkles on the warm chocolate.
- For Easter or springtime, you can also choose to use pink, yellow, lavender, or green).
- Store in an airtight container for up to one month or freeze them for later.