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This months Cookie Carnival recipe is Chocolate Citrus Biscotti (flavored with orange and lemon zest) from Giada De Laurentiis via the Food Network.

I love anything citrus. I can eat all the navel oranges you can put in front of me. In my opinion, Florida grows the best oranges. Of course, I may be a bit biased as I grew up in the middle of a county that is home to approximately 95,050 acres of commercial orange groves. In case you were wondering, that’s a ton of oranges!

Back to the biscotti… This is a recipe I plan on baking again and again. It was absolutely wonderful. I loved the cornmeal texture. It’s something I hadn’t tried before with biscotti. It got even better when dipped in hot coffee. Y-u-m-m-y.

I had my doubts that it would be citrus-y enough for my liking, but I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor. It was just right and they smelled absolutely wonderful as they baked!

A couple of notes:

I found the dough to be really soft when trying to form it into logs. It kept wanting to spread outward. In the end, I had more of a large rectangle rather than a well formed log. It still worked though, they were just a little wider than originally intended.

The recipe says it makes 3 dozen. Somehow, I only came out with about 1 dozen. Probably due to the aforementioned widening of the logs.

On the last round of baking I cut the baking time to 20 minutes instead of 25.

Also, there are a few reviews on Food Network’s site saying the biscotti was extremely hard. I didn’t find it to be that hard. Yes, it was a bit harder than some biscotti I have baked but it wasn’t break-your-teeth hard.

For an extra touch, I chopped some walnuts and sprinkled them on the chocolate before it set.

They are even delicious for breakfast. Not that I had any for breakfast. This is just hypothetically speaking of course….sort of….

Get the recipe: Chocolate Citrus Biscotti

Also, if you haven’t already, check out the Cookie Carnival!

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Slowly but surely I have been baking my way through Martha Stewart’s Cookies book. When I have a cookie craving, this is the book I turn to. So the other night when I was in the baking mood I flipped through and waited for something to jump out at me. Figuratively speaking, of course.

I’ve made plain biscotti before, so this time around, I wanted to try something new. This might just become a favorite from now on. It has several things going for it. Firstly, it’s chocolate. Enough said. But also, the slightly salty taste of the pistachios pairs perfectly with just the right amount of sweetness. In other words, this biscotti rocks!

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, set aside. Beat sugar and butter; add eggs. Lightly beat in flour mixture.

Mmmmm… Look at the chocolaty goodness. Can it get any better?!?!

Oh yeah, it can! Just throw in some semi-sweet chocolate chips and pistachios!

Form the stiff dough into a flattened log and bake for about 25 minutes. Cool a bit then cut diagonally across to form 1-inch-thick slices; place them cut sides down on the cookie sheet. Then, just pop ‘em back in the oven for 8 min. Voilà!

Also, try dipping them in your favorite beverage. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, you name it!

Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies (pg 246)

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