cookie days

Geez, long time - no blog. The longer I'm at this blogging thing, the more respect I have for people who blog every day. That's a lot of work.

Anyway, I like to bake. Cookies, cakes, pies, scones, coffee cakes, birthday cakes. I bake all year long, but at Christmas, I really bake. Actually, not more quantity but definitely different stuff. One year I was paging thru my several cookie cookbooks and came across biscotti. $2 each at Starbucks, expensive by the box in specialty stores. I loved biscotti but thought it must be terribly difficult to make since they charged so much for it. But then I thought ah, what the hell and made some.

Revalation! It's not hard at all. Not the least bit tricky like scones or pie dough can be. No more time consuming or troublesome than rolling out dough for cutouts, or dropping by spoonfuls. Mix in the mixer, form two logs, flatten, bake, slice, bake again. Done. And it impresses the heck out of people who receive them as gifts. A cute coffee mug with several biscotti tucked inside is perfect for a lot people on your list. Those folks you want to remember with something small but good. Bake. Biscotti.

I usually make at least 3 types, sometimes as many as 5 depending on my mood and available baking time. One year I got fancy and dipped the ends in melted chocolate. That went over very well. Yesterday afternoon I made my usual choc chip with craisins cookies, our everyday gotta have 'em on hand cookies, but I also made two batches of biscotti - chocolate with craisins that I make each year and a cinnamon one I hadn't tried before. Both are very good. The following pics might motivate you to try your hand at them.

My trusty mixer and a great little biscotti book.

My usual baking mess. Spilled the cocoa this time. Gotta have a (homemade) mocha while baking cookies.

Baked logs cooling slightly before I slice them. Oooold cookie sheets.

Acres of biscotti. Cinnamon in front, choc with craisins in back.

View from the other end looks just as good.