Married to the Empire

Friday, June 20, 2008

Birthday Biscotti

Our group of friends always gets together to celebrate birthdays. We also exchange gifts, which is nice, but can get expensive if not careful. We have a party tonight for our friend John. Honestly, I haven't known him long enough to really know what he's into. But I do know that he drinks coffee, so I decided to try making biscotti for him.

Lemon Biscotti

1/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 T. grated lemon peel
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat butter in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, lemon peel, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour to crumb texture.

Kneading dough slightly, shape into 2 (9-inch) logs. Flatten logs with palm of hand to 1-1/2 inch thickness. Place on nonstick baking sheet.



Bake 20 minutes or until wooden toothpick into center of rolls comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet 1 hour.



Slice each roll crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Place slices on baking sheet; bake 8 minutes. Turn and bake 8 minutes more or until crisp and golden. Remove to wire rack; cool.



A nice jar helps with presentation.



Personally, I like consumable gifts. No one has to worry about where to store or display the gift, and it's meant to be used (or eaten, in this case) and not simply looked at. It's a win-win.

5 comments:

JunkMale said...

I can see what you say about consumable gifts. While I do like getting food for presents (I know, not the only consumable), I sometimes find myself wishing it would somehow last longer. I like to give and get presents that one will be able to use multiple times.

Of course, the sorts of presents I like least are things like flowers: temporary for the most part, and that which cannot be "used."

AnneK said...

It looks great. Our friends baked some really good brownies for my hubbys b'day. It was so yummy!!!

Sue said...

Yum!
I've always wanted to make biscotti. Maybe I'll give this a try!

Jodi said...

did you have any trouble with the biscotti being too hard? I know biscotti is supposed to be crisp, but I tried making some a few years back and it would almost break your tooth off...never did figure out if it was just a bad recipe or if it was operator error! :)

Anne Marie@Married to the Empire said...

Jodi, this recipe isn't too hard at all! You don't even have to dip it in coffee or tea to be able to bite into it. And truthfully, it doesn't even taste lemony, but maybe that's because I tweaked the recipe (a lot) by adding vanilla and removing the almonds it called for (nuts are very gross!).