Cranberry Orange Yum

This past weekend I had a family get-together with my extended family. We were all extremely busy over the holiday season, and this was the first time we could all, well most of us, get together. And as many southern families when we get together we eat. Usually. whoever house the gathering is at prepares the main dish a few sides, and everyone else brings something to go with it. This year we went to my mother's cousin's, Mica, house. He husband, Perry, recently got a green egg ( i still don't think i really get it) so they had so very yummy brisket, pork tenderloin and chicken. My mom made her delicious Brunswick stew, and a texas sheet cake. I got assigned the task of making my Grandpa's birthday cake, as it was the prior weekend. Ao not wanting to pass up an opportunity be make something new I decided to make him a German Chocolate cake. But more to come on that later.

While looking for the recipe for that, I stumbled upon this recipes for biscotti. I'm kinda a sucker for anything cranberry, and I though that these would make a lovely hostess gift. So here goes!

Add the sugar, salt, UNSALTED butter, and some orange zest into your mixer's bowl. If you dont have an orange on hand or a zester, you can use orange juice instead.

Add the eggs one at a time and mix well

Add the flour, salt, and baking powder to the wet mixture and gently mix by hand until almost completely combined

Add in the pecans and dried cranberries. Make sure that your pecans, or nut of choice, are chopped well. This will be helpful when you are slicing the loaf into cookies. And for the cranberries i used craisnins, but you can really use any brand.

For the dough into a "log" about a foot long. Defiantly put it on a silicone baking mat, parchment, or at the very least use a lil

Pam!

This is basically what it should look like after its first baking. The directions say to let if cool for 15 min., however, I waited longer. I tried to slice it into cookies after just 15 min. and it just crumbled, so waiting more like 30 for it to fully cool will only make the end result better.



Once it is finally cool, move it to a cutting board (remember don't cut on your baking mat) and slice it into cookies. Then transfer them back to the baking sheet. I used a spatula to make this move easier.

To give these biscotti's a little extra umph... drizzle some white chocolate on them! Melt some white chocolate in a double broiler. A double broiler is just a top of boiling water with a pot sitting in with what you are melting. Very easy and extremely useful! And if you need to thin out the chocolate to make it easier to drizzle add vegetable oil 1/2 tsp. at a time till it reaches the desired constancy.

To make the drizzling of the chocolate easier, cleaner and neater, I like to use a funnel and pour the chocolate, or whatever you are pouring, into one of these bottles. I got this one at a baking supply store, but they sell bigger ones at Wal-Mart.


Drizzle as much of as little white chocolate as you want. Stick them in the fridge to set the chocolate, and there you have it, coffee shop quality biscotti, made by you!

Cranberry Orange Biscotti

from Noshings at Tasty Kitchen

1 stick Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
¾ cups Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Orange Zest
2 whole Eggs
2 cups Flour
1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
½ cups Pecans, Chopped
½ cups Dried Cranberries


In a KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment or any electric mixer, beat well:
1 stick unsalted butter (room temp.)
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
(a touch of lemon or orange zest is nice in here too)
Add 2 eggs, one at a time.
Mix in slowly by hand with a wooden spoon:
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
When mostly mixed add in:
1/2 c. pecans, chopped
1/2 c. dried cranberries (I like the Ocean Spray orange flavored ones)
I like to use a Silpat to bake on, but you can also spray a little Pam on a baking sheet and form the dough into a log about a foot long and 3 inches wide, flattening the top a little as you go. The log should be about 1 inch tall at most.
Bake at 350F for about 30-35 minutes until barely golden and firm.
Remove from the oven and let the log cool about 15 minutes. Cut into 1/2 inch slices with a serrated knife. Be careful, these can crumble easily.
Lay the slices back on the baking sheet and return to oven for 10 minutes, then turn the cookies over and bake for another 8 minutes.
Cool before packaging up or storing to retain the crunch. Great with tea or coffee!
Optional: Let the slices cool uncovered and drizzle a fine-quality white chocolate over one side and lay them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. (Melted chocolate can be poured into a Ziploc bag with one tiny corner snipped off as a make-shift pastry bag.)