Christmas Baking: Pistachio Biscotti!

My holidays specialty and my mom’s favorite choice in baked good from me is this little one, biscotti.  My friend calls it burnt cookie and I guess it makes sense since you do have to bake it two times so its time consuming and the reason why I don’t do it as much as I should.

I did it about two years ago right HERE but with dried cherry.

So I decided to do Pistachio Biscotti, as you probably figured out.

Pistachio Biscotti

I got this recipe from my Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook

PISTACHIO BISCOTTI

Makes about 3 dozen biscottis

Ingredients

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsps vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pistachios

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Pistachio Biscottis out of the oven

1. Heat oven to 350F. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, oil, vanilla extract and the eggs with a spoon.  Stir in remaining biscotti ingredients.

2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface.  Knead until smooth.  On ungreased cookie sheet, shape half of dough at a time into 10×3 inch rectangle.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.  Cool on cookie sheet 15 minutes.  Cut crosswire into 1/2 inch slices.  Place slices, cut sides down, on cookie sheet.

4. Bake about 15 minutes, turning once until crisp and light brown.  Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely, about 45 minutes.

This was supposed to have glaze but I excluded it completely.  This recipe is very crunchy and delicious.  Perfect balance in sugar and it tastes totally awesome.  All the hard work makes so much sense after making these because they are always a hit.  Plus, nothing was changed or modified for this recipe so makes it even easier.

Do you like biscotti? Any flavor in particular?

I’m gone for the rest of the day.  I’ll have a Christmas thing go up tomorrow if all goes as planned.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE! MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAVE LOTS OF FUN AND REMEMBER TO STAY EXTREMELY AWESOME! 🙂

Daily Prompt:Five a Day

Yesterday’s daily prompt: You are being exiled to a private island, and your captors will only supply you with 5 foods. What do you pick?

I was going to post this yesterday but my tablet decided to run out of batteries and then I came back from driving to and from Plattsburgh so it was a bit tiring.  So here is my post! Better late than never! 😉

This question is a tad vague. If I were to be held captive, are we talking about raw foods? Will I have to cook it? Although would the captors be so nice? I wouldn’t be bet on it, right? Either way I’m sure I can figure out some way to cook it, but just in case, I would choose foods that I could eat raw or is already made.

1) I would choose to bring peanut butter but let me be extremely picky, kind of, and request the just peanuts President’s Choice style. That stuff is delicious and addictive. Its amazingly good and every morning, I need to eat it with white bread.

2) I would want some salmon. What is good is that salmon can be eaten raw and when cooked, its awesome. Plus its a quick cooking whether you steam or grill. Whichever cooking method, its still yummy.

3) I would bring pistachios. I love eating pistachios.  They are absolutely delicious.  I had wanted to bring pistachio biscottis but that seems to make me into this super luxurious captive.  Either way, I would be super happy with pistachios.

4) Question marks floating around my head now.  Hard choices…What would be my fourth food? I would have to think about it.  Starting to run out of ideas.  I would love to bring some apples.  Whichever types would be nice but I adore royal gala.  I mean apples are the means of a healthy living and it`ll keep away sickness so why not, right? Plus, if I`m going to be held captive, might as well try to stay physically feeling good to make it not as bad.

5) Last food I would bring is…bananas. Why you may ask? Because it has loads of potassium and it will prevent cramps.  I am down for that.  That would be totally awesome stuff.

I would bring lots of other foods and there is an endless list that I debated at the same time: mangoes, star fruits, strawberry rhubarb pie, gummy bears, pop tarts, golden oreos, all-dress chips, etc.  But being captive, there are pros and cons that I need to look at in a practical way, as much as I`d like to feel some form of food enjoyment and escape out of it, I`d also like to be healthy enough to be pain-free.  Thats always a plus in my book 🙂

What would you bring if you were to choose 5 foods?