Italian Biscotti Cookies

When I hear the word Biscotti, I think of two things, my dog {her name is biscotti} and my favorite Italian Biscotti Cookies.  The latter is my all time favorite cookie, I think it is my favorite cookie because of the memories that cookie holds for me.

 As I child, I remember the holiday’s {or any given Sunday} the whole family gathering at my grandmothers house, where there would be laughter, card playing and food, lots of food!  But, grandmas house always smelled extra delightful on the days she made her Italian Biscotti Cookies.

 Sadly, I don’t have her amazing recipe, no one ever wrote it down.  Several years ago when my son was born, I wanted to find an easy biscotti recipe to start my own traditions with.  A neighbor gave me this one I have been using ever since.

Italian Biscotti Cookies

The excellent thing about this recipe is, it’s pretty basic, so you can add what ever you want, like cranberries and pistachios for Christmas, and pumpkin puree at Thanksgiving, chocolate chips, or any type of dried fruit.  My favorite is just with Anise Flavoring.

Italian Biscotti Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

3 Eggs, at room temperature

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1 1/2 Tablespoons Anise Extract

3 1/4 Cups Flour, sifted

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
  3. In a bowl combine together oil, eggs, extract, and sugar.
  4. Add baking powder and flour to sugar mixture.
  5. Mix until all ingredients have combined to form a dough.
  6. Divide dough in half.
  7. Form each half in to a long rectangle log on prepared cookie sheet.
  8. Repeat with second half of dough.
  9. Place cookie sheet in oven for 25 minutes.
  10. When cool enough to handle, cut rectangle into 1/2 inch slices.
  11. Place slices cut side down on cookie sheet and bake for an additional 12 minutes until slightly toasted.

Italian Biscotti Cookie Dough

**You can make the biscotti any size you like by how wide you make the width of each log.

**Bake biscotti on a rack in the oven close to the top so the bottoms of the cookies don’t brown too much.

Enjoy!