Cranberry Almond Biscotti

I wanted to make an easy, yet cute holiday gift. I found this biscotti recipe on the food network. I love the idea of dried cherries, but dried cranberries were 2.99 at the store while cherries were 4.99. (you do the math!) I changed the recipe a bit and added a glaze, and the end result was a very delicious cookie!


This recipe came from Anne Burrell's Cherry-Almond Biscotti on food network. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/dried-cherry-and-almond-biscotti-recipe/index.html)

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, plus 1 egg white
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch salt
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1/2 cup whole blanched almonds, toasted
• 3/4 cup dried cherries (or dried cranberries)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Add the vanilla.

Gently mix in the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Once the dry ingredients are incorporated, fold in the almonds and dried cherries. 


Divide the dough in half and roll the dough into 2 logs, around 9" long and 2" wide. The dough will be VERY sticky, this is normal, dust with flour. Don't be afraid of adding too much flour, I ended up adding almost a cup because the dough was so sticky. Roll the logs to the length of a sheet pan fitted with parchment paper. I found that the dough spreads quite a bit when cooking. The easiest way to avoid this is to put each log on its own cookie sheet; yes you dirty one more dish, but at least your biscotti does not cook together!

Remove from the oven let cool for 10 minutes. Remove logs to a cutting board and slice on the bias about 3/4 inch thick. 

Lay the biscotti back on the sheet pan and return to the oven for another 10-12 minutes. I moved mine apart a bit so they could dry better in the oven. Cool completely on a rack. 

Once cooled, you can either serve the biscotti as is, or you can make a simple glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp (maybe more depending on the consistency)
1/2 tsp vanilla


Combine all ingredients and drizzle over biscotti. Here's the finished product! I cooled mine completely and put them in small craft bags found at any craft store.