Ever have one of those moments when you just served a beautiful meal to your guests and are now excited to bring out the dessert that you’ve spent hours preparing? Everyone looks really excited when you set the dessert on the table, they ooh and ahh at the beautiful creation that you laid out in front of them and complement you on your achievement but when offered a bite, all you get is “no thank you, I’m too full”.
This is something that happens to me fairly regularly when entertaining and I bet it’s happened to you as well. Am I right?
The problem, at least for me, is that I love appetizers so I always serve more than I probably should. After all, isn’t the cocktail hour the best part of any party? Everyone assembles slowly, gets a drink and then picks at a sample of beautiful munchies while chatting with other guests. I often set up the appetizers in my kitchen so that I can be a part of the conversation/picking while putting the final touches on dinner and, in the process, I sometimes loose track of time. As a result, my guests spend more time munching than I had originally planned and, because everyone seems really content to do just that, I don’t rush the process.
Then comes dinner which fills up any stomach compartments that weren’t fully stocked by the appetizers and by the time dessert arrives, people are tapping out. As a result, they usually opt for a coffee or an after dinner drink rather than a slice of that cheesecake that I spent hours baking in a water bath or a triple layer cake that took more time to prepare than the appetizers and dinner combined.
I usually end up packing up portions of dessert for guests to take home with them or, more often than not, I end up with way too many sweets tempting me and my family for days to come. Don’t get me wrong, I love leftovers but there’s only so much that we can consume in one household. And, no matter how often this happens, I always make the same mistake the next time we entertain.
That’s where these biscotti come in. Crisp, nutty and studded with beautiful dried cranberries then topped off with just a bit of white chocolate, these cookies have all the flavors of the holiday season and are the perfect ending to a heavy meal. They take just minutes to prepare, can be made weeks in advance and stored in your freezer, and are perfect with a cup of coffee, a glass of Champagne, or even just on their own. Plus, this perfect little bite of sweetness is a great pick up dessert which means that you won’t have to spend any time slicing and plating. They can easily be eaten over a napkin (no extra dishes to wash), at the table or in front of the TV while watching the football game and because they’re small, my guests always come back for more.
And here’s another hint, bake a double batch of these and store some away in your freezer to have on hand next month when random guests show up at your door or you want to send some treats out to family and friends. Okay, that’s your baking assignment for this pre-Thanksgiving weekend. Mission accepted?
I hope that you’ll give these Almond and Cranberry Biscotti a whirl. If you do, please let me know what you think or tag me on Instagram. I always love hearing from everyone and seeing pictures of anything that you make. And above all, thank you so much for stopping by.
Almond And Cranberry Bisocotti
Ingredients
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 8 tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- ½ tsp almond extract
- 1½ cups sweetened dried cranberries
- 1 egg white
- 6 oz good quality white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt to combine. Combine sugar, butter, eggs and almond extract in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and mix until well blended. Add the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Sir in the cranberries.
- Using well floured hands, divide the dough (it will be sticky) into two equal parts. Shape each half into an 11×2-inch log. Transfer both logs to the prepared baking sheet leaving at least 4 inches between them.
- in a small bowl, whisk the egg white until foamy (about 30 seconds). Brush the tops and sides of logs with the egg white. Bake the logs for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and place it on a cooling rack. Cool the logs for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 °F.
- Transfer each log to a cutting board. Discard the parchment paper. Using a serrated knife cut each log on a diagonal into ½-inch slices. Place the slices, cut side down, on the baking sheet, return to oven and bake 10 minutes on each side. Remove from oven and cool completely. The biscotti can be frozen at this point for several weeks.
- Line a baking sheet or work surface with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate in a microwave bowl using one minute intervals. Stir after each interval until fully melted. Dip the bottom half of each biscotti in chocolate and lay them, cut side down on the parchment paper until fully set. Store biscotti in an air tight container at room temperature for up to a week. * See note.