Pistachio Almond Biscotti

Tis the season...for cookies!  One of my absolute favorites is this elegant Italian Pistachio Almond Biscotti cookie studded with nuggets of almonds and pistachio making for a subtly sweet, nutty, and oh so satisfying flavor.  The Italian word 'biscotti' means 'twice cooked', a baking method that creates dense, crunchy textured cookies that are perfect for slow yummy nibbling or for dunking into a hot coffee.  These biscotti are not only super yummilicious but also gorgeous to look at with their flecks of pistachio green.  Just the thing to add to a cookie box!

Chocolate Dipped Biscotti

My very first biscotti was eaten a long, long time ago in a little Italian style cafe near my university campus.  The counter had a beautiful and enormous glass jar packed with these funnily shaped biscuits.   Newly from suburbia I naturally had no idea what they were but I could see that many others in the cafe had indulged.  So I took the plunge and ordered one with my usual cuppa.  

As I picked up this thing called biscotti I thought to myself, you have got to be kidding, this thing is hard as heck!  I gnawed furtively at one hard end.  Humm...not going to happen.  I looked about and spied out others taking their hard as heck biscottis for dips into their coffee.  I followed suit and wow, wow...deep biscotti love!

Ever since then I have always, always wanted to make biscotti.  So I'm super excited to share this amazing biscotti recipe, it's so easy to make and OMG so yummilicious!  And comes out hard but not too hard!  You can eat it without dipping.  And of course, because I'm a chocolate freak, I had to up the ante and make it Chocolate Dipped Biscotti!