Holiday Cookies 1 (Cranberry Almond + Ginger Chip Biscotti)

I had a baking day with my friend Laura yesterday. Ok so it was a baking, mulled wine and cheese and crackers day.  The base recipe is from Julee Rosso’s classic, Great Good Food. I thought it would be good with toasted almonds and dried cranberries…I was correct! They have a lovely complex flavour that is not too sweet but has just enough zip to keep you interested. Next time I think I may add some white chocolate chips to see what happens.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 c. nuts toasted (pick your favourite or do a combo)
• 1 c. chopped dried cranberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a Kitchen Aid or whatever mixer you have combine eggs and vanilla and mix until well blended. Add sugar, flour, soda and salt. Beat until dough forms. Mix in the nuts and cranberries. The dough will be sticky. Turn it onto a floured board and with floured hands and a pastry scrapper knead the dough gently several times.
3. Divide dough in half and roll into two 15″ logs and pat down do they are about 2″ wide.
4. Put the logs on the baking sheet leaving about 2″ between them (they do spread a bit).
5. Bake 40 minutes. Remove and cool for 10.
6. Reduce oven to 275 F and cut the logs on a diagonal to make your biscotti.
7. Place them cut side down and bake for 10 minutes. Flip and bake another 10 minutes (this is the bit that makes them crispy). Turn the heat on the oven off and leave for 15 minutes (I forgot this part but it doesn’t seem to have hurt anything). Remove from oven and cool completely.
8. Dip the ends in chocolate if you want or leave them naked. They are good either way.

Supposed to make 45 but I think I made mine a little larger so we ended up with 2 dozen. No big deal. I can always make more.

You can also make a Gingerbread chip version of these by omitting the nuts and adding:

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 c white chocolate chips