Tools of the Trade

Coffee, answer key, blue books... it's that time of the quarter again. I try to make/bring something for my students if they have an in-class final exam and I figured what was more apropos for an Italian history class than biscotti? I've made biscotti once before and used these two recipies: A fantastic Gluten Free Sugar Free recipe (more like macaroons than biscotti, but if you bake the second bake until the crisp up they'd be closer to the original), and a traditional biscotti recipe. The second recipe was also excellent, but traditional in the sense that it used no additional fats other than that found in the eggs. For my students I wanted something that wouldn't require coffee - although why woudl you go to a final w/o coffee? - which meant a cookie with added fats and a slightly more americanized taste.

I decided to make 2 recipes rather than double one. The first came from the partner of a colleague: The Pixel Diaries Guilt Free Biscotti.  I made mine with almonds and apricots. This recipe was very easy to make and came out fantastic. I used 1/2c olive oil this time, but will try the applesauce substitutions next time. Oh yes, and the dough was a bit sticky so I added and extra 1/4c. of flour and chilled the dough for 30 min before handling. "Handling" was more like blobbing bits onto the cookie sheet with a spoon - so don't be concerned if you can't really kneed or handle the dough.

The second recipe was from one of my favorite all-time blogs: Foodiefarmgirl's Chocolate Biscotti. so, easy, so chocolatey, so good.

If you've never made biscotti and want to give it a try, I highly recommend both recipes.

Now I just have to stop being lazy and take pics with something other than my laptop camera. I sort of can't believe myself in that I can't be bothered to take proper pictures. It's sad that the extra steps of downloading the photos from the camera, futzing with them, and then uploading them is too much.  Maybe that's why I need the new iPhone! Awesome camera and instant blogging ability! (in my wildest dreams of totally unnecessary gadgetry that I can in no way afford or justify....)