Orange Biscotti

I have several recipes for biscotti but I think this is my favorite.  This recipe comes from a good friend of mine, Judee Perone. Actually, it's Bernie's recipe, her husband, and I am grateful he shared it with me.  If I bake cookies, this is the recipe I usually do.  Most biscotti recipes call for butter.  This one uses margarine. I once tried to subsitute butter in the recipe.  But it really didn't work as well.  When I mentioned this to Judee she said Bernie tried it and came to the  same conclusion that margarine works better in this recipe.

Biscotti literally means 'twice baked.  As you will note in the recipe below the cookie is in the oven actually twice.  The first time the dough is formed into a 'log' and baked.  Once it is cooled, the log is sliced diagonally, and baked on each side.

On Sunday, November 14th, Jon and Christine came over and spent the day with me. Jon and I sat in the computer room for over three hours where Jon patiently helped me to develop this BLOG.  When the movie rights are sold, I surely will make sure Jon gets credit!!!

I couldn't let Christine, my favorite student, remain idle. So I gave her this recipe, had all the ingredients laid out for her and let her make these cookies.  With minimal coaching from me, Christine did an excellent job!

In any case, here is the recipe!! Thanks Bernie!!  GO FOR IT.

ORANGE BISCOTTI

Ingredients

2 sticks of margarine, room temperature

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

6 teaspoons of Vanilla or 2 teaspoons of Vanilla and 4 teaspoons of triple sec liquor (you can substitute orange extract for the triple sec)

4 cups plus 8 tablespoons flour

3 teaspoons of baking powder

Dash of salt

The zest of a small orange, careful not to include any of the pith

Optional:      1 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans or almonds

                   ¾ cup dried chopped cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

1.     In a large mixing bowl, beat margarine and sugar until light and sugar fully incorporated and creamy. It will be a bit grainy. 

2.     Beat in eggs and vanilla, then add orange zest.

3.     Add optional nuts and/or cranberries and stir to mix.

4.     In another bowl, put in flour, baking powder and salt and stir to blend.

5.     Stir flour mixture slowly in to creamed sugar.  Do not overmix.

6.     Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes, as dough will be too soft to handle.

7.     Divide dough in to four equal parts and shape each in a log about 12 inches long. 

8.     On a greased and floured cookie sheet, place each log and press until about 2 inches wide and about ¼ inch high.

9.     Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. 

10. Reduce oven to 300 degrees. 

11. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Carefully move to wire racks and let cool an additional 15 minutes.

12. On a cutting board, cut logs diagonally in roughly ¾ inch slices.  Place each slice on its side on the baking sheet.  Toast for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and turn each slice and return to oven for another 10 minutes