Beginner Cranberry Almond Biscotti

Biscotti are delicious, crunchy cookies, perfect for dipping in cups of coffee and tea. You can often find them in coffee shops, where they're giant sized and dipped or drizzled in chocolate. But they're surprisingly easy to make yourself!

I call this recipe Beginner Cranberry Almond Biscotti, because I don't use actual almonds or nuts in this recipe. When you add hard ingredients like nuts, the baked cookie dough becomes hard to cut and breaks, and unless you've got biscotti experience, they just won't turn out beautifully on the first try.

Hence the use of almond extract, and dried cranberries! Easy to cut, beautiful to look at, and delicious to eat!

Let's make some biscotti!

I used this recipe from Food and Wine magazine, but I left out the almonds in order to make the recipe easier for a beginner. You can also add in a tablespoon of ground flax seeds for added health benefits, or swap the dried cranberries for dried cherries.

Cranberry Almond Biscotti (recipe will make about 30 biscotti)

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• optional, 1 tbsp. ground flax seeds

Beat the eggs and sugar together until thoroughly mixed and creamy yellow. Stir in the almond extract and butter. Add in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and optional ground flax seeds) and mix again. (I used a stand mixer, but you can do it by hand as well). Stir in the dried cranberries last.

Wet your hands, and shape the dough into two flat logs, on a parchment covered baking tray.

The dough will be very sticky, so wetting your hands (and re-wetting!) is a crucial step in shaping the dough.

Bake in a 350 degree oven, for about 25 minutes, until the top of the logs are golden. Remove and let cool.

Biscotti means twice baked, and that's what we do in this recipe!

Once your logs have cooled, carefully slice them on the diagonal, using a serrated bread knife. Go slowly. Using a serrated knife is critical.

Lie the slices of cookie on their sides, back on the parchment paper lined cookie tray. Bake for about 10 minutes, at 350 degrees, until the cookies are crispy and golden on their sides.

The goal is to end up with a nice dry and crunchy cookie, that stores well, and is great for dipping!

Let cool and enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea! If you're adventurous, you can drizzle with some melted chocolate, but they're delicious without the embellishment!

Like my instructable? Vote for me in the Baking Contest! And check out my blog: www.approachingfood.com. Thanks!