This winter we had a lot of snow. And by a lot, I’m talking over a metre (yard) high piled up on our front yard. It’s been really crazy. I’ve talked about our wonderful neighbours before and I just have to say something again. It snowed about 10cm (4 inches) overnight and by the time we had gotten up the next morning, our wonderful neighbour John had shoveled our sidewalk, all 59 feet of it and even some of our other neighbour’s sidewalk too! Isn’t that nice? As a thank you I made a batch of biscotti, a little different than this version I made last year to give them after all, I wouldn’t want to discourage such neighborly behavior!
Almond, Cranberry and Orange Biscotti
Makes about 4 dozen little cookies
Ingredients:
Plus a small amount of dark chocolate, melted with a little butter (just enough to drizzle).
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.
- Toast the whole almonds on a baking sheet for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, orange zest and nuts in a medium-sized bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk the eggs together with the sugar, melted butter, vanilla extract and almond extract ; stir the wet ingredients into the flour/nut mixture and combine until a sticky dough forms.
- Transfer to a floured surface and form the dough into two narrow logs about 30 cm or 12 inches long.
- Place the logs onto an ungreased baking sheet and brush with the beaten egg whites.
- Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for about 6 minutes and then slice into 1 cm or 0.5 inch thick diagonal slices. Return slices to the cookie sheet and bake again for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool.
[…] afternoon, I always feel like a little something to have with it, a biscotti (like this, this or this) or in most recent times, an amaretti cookie. Having just the right amount of ground almonds on […]
LikeLike
Mm, sounds wonderful Eva – I wish I had you as a neighbour. I can guarantee you that if this is how you thank people, you’d never have to shovel your driveway again!
By the way, you have an unclosed HTML tag in your recipe instructions:
<liTtoast
should be:
Toast
LikeLike
Bleurgh, the comment formatted out my correction.
It should be this:
Toast
(without the space)
LikeLike
OMG! It did it again… screw it, I’ll email you!
LikeLike
Would you like me to clear out these two comments? I can correct the other one too.
LikeLike
Nah, it’s ok… unless you really wanted to 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks Charles, I wrote that post on my iPhone and the interface is not WYSIWYG believe it or not and going back and forth is a royal pain. I really do appreciate the heads up and the solution, thank you.
LikeLike
These sound so good, Eva. Love almond-flavored baked goods. I wish I was your neighbor … well, for a number of reasons but one of them would be for your good neighbor rewards. You’d see me out there with my little snowblower every time a snowflake hit your pavement, all the while hoping for a biscotti reward. Your neighbor is no fool. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you so much John, I too wish you were our neighbour for the same reasons…except that we would be over as soon as some of the wonderful Italian aromas hit our noses…with some vino of course!
LikeLike
Hmm.. I think he knew what he was doing when he shoveled your walks:D I wish you lived next door to us, my husband would be out there going crazy just praying for a few biscotti! This is the second blog post I’ve read with a nice dessert biscuit or biscotti.. and my cupboards are bare! I wish I had a few of these tonight, Eva! That’ll teach me for blog reading so late in the day!
LikeLike
Yes, that is the one hazard of blogging late into the night, all of the delicious recipes and photos! I suspect there is some truth to your suggestion re our neighbour. I would be more than happy to supply you with biscotti if you shovelled our side walks too!
LikeLike
That’s one nice neighbor and one great recipe!
LikeLike
Thank you Adri, welcome to my blog.
LikeLike
I’ve been reading about the orange and cranberry flavour combo and baked something with it and it was so good! I’m totally converted! 😀 Good to hear that it’s getting warmer for you guys!
LikeLike
Thank you kindly Lorraine, it is a very warming flavour combination indeed.
LikeLike
Sorry to hear it’s still so cold in Canada. I will not talk about our weather because I don’t want to make you angry 🙂 The biscotti sound fantastic! Your kind neighbour has certainly merited them!
LikeLike
Hi Sissi,
Thanks for your comment. It’s still a little chilly but certainly warming up although not all the ice has melted yet!
LikeLike
Your winter has sounded horrendous. I don’t know how you’ve survived it. How wonderful to have such kind and considerate neighbours but lovely how you rewarded them with this lovely biscotti xx
LikeLike
Thank you Charlie. I had always assumed that Australia had a similar weather to us, but boy was I wrong. It’s been quite awful this year so I’m hoping that we’ll be rewarded by a sunny and hot summer…no rainy weekends, thank you very much.
LikeLike
I love your biscotti Eva. I happen to be out of biscuits at the moment, perfect excuse to rustle some up.
LikeLike
Thanks David I hope you enjoy the recipe.
LikeLike
You have to show your appreciation to such a great neighbour and this sounds like a nice treat. Happy to see your use of cranberries. They’re not just for Thanksgiving … the dried version add a great sweet/tart taste and bright colour to lots of things. Dried cherries would have been nice as well. When I finally allow myself to go to to Bulk Barn I’m going to pick up some nice new dried fruits and go wild.
You had SNOW last night! We’re just getting a lot of rain today. Guess we dodged a bullet.
LikeLike
Hi Maria, thank you for your comment. Indeed the dried cherries would be lovely in this biscotti too, chocolate and cherry make a delicious combination. I can hardly contain my excitement that we too are going to get a Bulk Barn about a five minute drive from our house. I was just at one in Oakville today stocking up on some very unusual spices.
Some folks (like at our cottage) will get about 15 cm of snow tonight, fortunately we are getting rain.
LikeLike
That’s nice Eva. Biscotti reminds me of my dear oldest girl who used bring me biscotti. A friend of ours in Ottawa got together with his neighbors this winter and they paid for the repair and together now share an old snow blower. The photos he posts on facebook tells the story. What a lot of snow!
LikeLike
Indeed many places in Ontario got a lot more snow than we did so I really shouldn’t complain; in fact, some will get about 15cm tonight while we get a bunch of rain. I’m hoping the rain will melt all of the ice and snow that is so stubbornly staying put.
LikeLike
You’ve combined all of my favorite flavors into one of my favorite delivery vehicles…a biscotti! I love your use of some almond extract in here to give it that extra almond essence. And drizzling with chocolate is a perfect finishing touch. Very nice neighbor and a very lucky one, too! 😉
LikeLike
Thank you very much Betsy, it was a wonderful combination of flavours indeed. JT had wished I had held back a few more than I actually did!
LikeLike
What a great neighbor, but so nice of you to treat him to these lovely biscotti 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you kindly Cheri.
LikeLike
What a terrific neighbour, Eva. He certainly deserves a batch of cookies that you can make while inside where it’s warm and you’re not lifting anything heavier than a cookie sheet. These do sound delicious.
LikeLike
Thanks so much Maureen, we are indeed very fortunate to have such lovely neighbours.
LikeLike
It sounds like a perfect biscotti recipe!
LikeLike
Thank you so much Angie.
LikeLike