dancing Light’s Holiday Biscotti

Finally blogging again. It’s been quite a summer and fall with “the move.”   Lately we’ve been working on finishing up Sunlight in My Soul,  Abraham, Standing in Moonlight, Raging Winds, Walking Over the Water, Autumn Wind and  Dear John. There’s a new live video of Abraham, recorded last week in our home recording studio. You can view Abraham on our youTube channel.   We’ve been asked about Greg’s free “Peace on Earth” holiday card. If you’re looking for it, you’ll find it online, with instructions for printing, in our dancing light café.

Today, we’re taking some time to do a little holiday baking.  This year we created a special “Holiday Biscotti” for our family, friends and fans. We love the crunchy sweet Italian cookies, especially with coffee.

While reading a French cookbook, we learned the phrase “mise en place.”  It a fancy French term that basically means, “get all your ingredients out, prepared, measured and ready to go before you start  cooking.”   Greg says it means,  “Are the mice in place?”  We’re finding that cooking from a recipe goes much more smoothly if everything’s ready to go.

We hope you enjoy the Holiday Biscotti.  Happy Holidays!

Love,

Kiki and Greg

http://dancinglight.us

PS  If you’d like a printer friendly copy of the biscotti recipe, click here.

Kiki and Greg’s Holiday Biscotti

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350°

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

¾ cup sugar

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 large farm-fresh organic eggs

2 teaspoons freshly ground anise seed

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 one ounce squares white chocolate

¾ cup dark chocolate chunks or chips

¾ cup chopped crystalized ginger (could sub craisins for ginger, but use about half as much)

Enjoy!

The finished biscotti

Transfer biscotti to a cooling rack and cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Can be made several days ahead. Here’s Greg with the biscotti, fresh out of the oven.

Place the partially cooled log on a cutting board and slice diagonally into ¾” slices. Lay the slices down on the baking sheet. Return them to a 350º oven for 15 minutes.

Form into a log that’s 16″ long and 3″ inches wide. Bake until light golden, about a half and hour. Take it out of the over and leave it on the baking sheet to cool for another half hour.

Cream butter, sugar and anise with an electric mixer until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time until blended. Add vanilla and blend. Add flour mixture and beat just until combined. Stir in white and dark chocolates and chopped candied ginger.

Put everything in place before starting. Chop the chocolate and crystallized ginger, grind the anise seed, measure the ingredients

We bought a coffee grinder for $1 at the second hand store. We use it to grind our spices. This is ground anise seed.

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl (quickie sift) and set aside.