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Health & Fitness

Recipe: Cranberry-Pistachio Biscotti

Conquering my fear of the traditional Christmas cookies—an adventure in a cookie discovery.

Christmas is a time for baking cookies and sweet treats. This time of year always gets me in the mood for baking. Now I know that baking is not for everyone; however, you have to admit that cookies eaten during the Christmas holiday seem to taste so much better than they do during the rest of the year—that is the excuse I tell myself after having my fill of these wonderful little treats.

Growing up in an Italian-American house, my older brother and I always ate Italian biscotti and cookies. If our family members could make it, then that is what we ate for dessert. We never ate cookies that were advertised on TV commercials. These alien cookies had such wild and enticing names: gingerbread, snickerdoodles, oatmeal raisin, gobs, rainbow and sugar cookies. They were a mystery to my brother and I, yet I was intrigued by them.

These cookies were so exotic to us and we would only get so see them on display at the bakery. When we did go to the bakery, we never ordered them. Maybe it was fear that kept us from ordering a sugar cookie with sprinkles—they do look menacing you know.

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These cookies were never served in our house, it just never happened. We had to suffer and eat desserts like cannoli, biscotti and sfogliatelle. Did I mention that most of our birthday cakes were Zuppa Inglese cakes? Yes, we were made to eat Italian Trifle (Italian Rum) Cakes on our birthday. The horror that my brother and I suffered as children; it was miracle that we survived.

At one point during my childhood, I saw photographs in the Betty Crocker Cookbook of holiday cookie trays. I was memorized by their beauty and artistic qualities. So I did what any child would do—I consulted my mother. I demanded my mother explain to me why we did not have these colorful cookies, these unconventional treats on our cookies trays at Christmas. I wanted to know how come our cookie trays did not look like the ones I saw in the cookbook. She looked down at me and simply said “because we don’t.”

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Like a typical Italian mom, her answer concise and direct. I never questioned it—I just accepted it. This would be the answer that I would live with until I became and adult.

I was in my late 20s when I had my first gob.

I was dating my husband at the time and he decided to make these delicious treats our first Christmas together. That was the beginning of the end. I had a whole new world of cookies open up to me. First it was gobs, then snickerdoodles and then peanut butter blossoms. There was a cookie awakening deep within my soul. I had an epiphany about these cookies—they were not bad, they were just different.  

I could exist in a world where there were Italian cookies and non Italian cookies—who knew?!

As an adult, I have come to appreciate all types of cookies. I love looking all different types there are. I love the way they look at the bakeries; I admire the way they look on the holiday trays. I pour over cookie cookbooks, looking for new and creative spins on traditional cookies.

The Christmas holiday provides people with a wonderful opportunity for baking cookies. It is a time to bring out the traditional old school family cookies, as well as new and modern ones.

So with that I am going to share with you my recipe for delicious biscotti that I make for my holiday cookie tray. It is a tradtional biscotti with a modern twist.

Buon Appetito!

Cranberry-Pistachio Biscotti (Adapted from Mary Engelbreit’s recipe):

I dipped mine in white chocolate just for fun, either way they taste so good.

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¾ c sugar

1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

¾ cup unsalted pistachios, shelled and chopped

½ cup dried cranberries, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line the baking sheet with parchment paper or non-stick foil. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla together. In another bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture until a dough forms. Add pistachios and cranberries to the dough, and roll into logs. Bake for about 20-30 minutes (the bottoms will be golden brown). Let the cookies cool and slice. Decrease the oven temperature to 325 and bake again until golden brown about 20 minutes.

Do you have a favorite Christmas cookie recipe? Share yours with andrea.bosco@patch.com and we will feature it on Peters Patch.

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