This week’s SMS was chosen by Tracey of Made by Tray Tray: sour cherry and almond biscotti! Even though I’m not a huge biscotti fan, I really like making them – they’re fun and just a little more special than regular cookies. Plus, since they’re such good keepers (at least a week), I didn’t have to worry about finding someone to give them to immediately. He doesn’t know it yet, but I’m planning to bring these to Shane’s dad when I see him at Shane’s race today. (It’s the big day for the half-Ironman and although I am dreading the 3:30 am wake up call more than I can put into words, I’m really excited to go and cheer Shane on!)
These biscotti incorporate many great flavors – dried cherries that are reconstituted in orange juice, whole almonds, almond extract – yum! I briefly considered substituting dried cranberries (which I already had on hand) for the cherries but Jeannette convinced me otherwise. Did anyone else think it was weird that the recipe called for fresh orange juice and the zest of a lemon? I figured since I was already using the juice, I’d just use the orange zest too. I rubbed it into the sugar with my fingertips (a trick I use often since learning it from Dorie). The dough is refrigerated before being shaped and baked, but even cold I still found it quite sticky. I shaped it roughly using well floured hands and then switched over to a rubber spatula to finish the job. Like all biscotti, these are baked once, then cut and baked a second time. I was wary about the second baking time here, which seemed long at an hour, but it wound up being perfect.
I sampled the dough before I baked the biscotti and it was delicious and not surprisingly, when I tried a bite of one of the cookies after it came out of the oven, the flavor was great! I think these would be wonderful dunked in coffee or tea as they’re quite crisp. Thanks to Tracey for hosting this week! She will post the recipe on her site or you can find it on pages 72-73 of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.
Lemon Bars
Glazed Grapefruit Cake
Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
I short-baked mine so they were slightly softer than usual which is what we like.
Yours look nice and crispy, the way most people like them.
We loved them.
Your biscotti looks perfect! Good luck with the early wake up call!
I love biscotti! yours look perfect, a nice combination of flavors there!
they are perfect for dunking!
This looks absolutely amazing. I will definitely try it again with the orange zest too. Thanks for the tip about incorporating sugar and zest.
Good luck to Shane! And I hope you get to take a nap later. =)
Gorgeous photos! I thought that the use of orange juice but the zest of the lemon was odd too! I also tasted the raw dough and thought it was great.
Great photography Trac.
Carmen
Here in Denver there are sour cherry trees lining a segment of one of the main drags, Speer Blvd. 2 weeks ago Peter and I went down there and picked about 8 cups worth, which he turned into a cherry crumble and a sauce (which will accompany a cheesecake tomorrow). I rare thing to have such a resource.
I love good biscotti and am always looking for new recipes to make for when Christmas time hits. This one looks perfect!
Those look perfect. Love biscotti but never bake it. Need to if they can be as pretty as these.
Beautiful!! I hope the race went well today!!
I didn’t get around to making these this weekend but they seem like a mus make. Yours look perfect.
And congrats to Shane on finishing the ironman. Thanks hardcore stuff.
Thanks for baking this week! I did find the fact that it called for fresh orange juice and lemon zest so I used lemon juice and lemon zest since it’s what I had on hand. Often times recipes that are scaled down or from a restaurant are not well-suited for the home chef!
Hope you woke up in time. I would jump out of bed if I knew I was going to have one of these with my morning coffee. They look beautiful.
Great job with the biscotti! Your pictures look beautiful.
Great pics Tracey! Smart idea about using all orange juice & zest. I went the other way and used LEMON juice & zest. Your way was probably delicious, too!
Gorgeous photos! Glad you liked them!
Your biscotti look perfect! This recipe was a pleasant surprise for me this week…not something I would normally make. But the flavors are so great together!
Glad to hear these were a hit at your house. And serious kudos to Shane for competing in an Ironman!
Biscotti is one of my favorite cookies. Your biscotti looks very perfect and I can say that it is so delicious. The combination of flavor is awesome.
I’m so glad that I could convince you otherwise 😉 Try making those Dark Chocolate Cherry cookies… you may not like them (I recall your aversion to dark chocolate) but slice those babies a bit closer to 1″ thick and underbake them just a tad and I swear, they will fly off the cookie plate 🙂
Your biscotti look fantastic. I gave all but a handful to my mom and she has all but a handful left over. I guess they really were that good 😀
Great looking biscotti! I love biscotti and the recipe in Dorie’s cookbook for almond is one of my favs. I will have to give this one a try.
looks great. can’t wait to hear how the 70.3 went!
I agree totally, I’m not a huge biscotti fan either but they’re fun to make. And I was also concerned about the long second bake. Mine are a little browner than yours, and the color on yours is what I was going for.
Hey, I baked up the rest of the whole wheat chocolate chip cookies you posted a couple months ago…LOVE those!
Your biscotti looks beautiful! They really are a fun treat to make, aren’t they?
3:30?! You are a very supportive spouse! I hope the triathlon went well.
Hopefully your husband’s race went well. Your biscotti look like they turned out great, and I, too, definitely “sampled” some of the dough 🙂
They look great! I’m actually surprised they’re not much browner than they are, given the 1 hour bake time (which I thought was too much and so I didn’t follow through w/that). How did Shane’s dad like them? I have no doubt they were a big hit!
These look really good. I’ve never made biscotti yet.
These were abolutely perfect! Loved the combo of the Cherry and the Almond flavor, and the crispness was perfect! I have to admit, these didn’t make it into work. We served some at the house for company (people had seconds) and the rest we have been nibbling on over time. I brought 2 to work this morning to have with my coffee at my desk and dunked them. Perfection!
I would like to exchange links with your site http://www.blogger.com
Is this possible?