Apricot, Almond & Orange Biscotti

When the weather is nice, every Saturday morning finds my granddaughter and I sitting on the back steps enjoying some cinnamon toast, hot chocolate, and a latte. It's the tail-end to our Friday night sleepovers, before I deposit her back with her parents.  She jabbers non-stop, we enjoy watching the birds and Harley play.  It's special time, I hope when I'm long gone from this world, she looks back fondly on these moments with her Nana. But I don't just spend  Saturday mornings out there.  On many mornings you can find me out back, sipping on a latte and enjoying a quiet start to my day. This week I've enjoyed  a few of these biscotti with my latte.

Biscotti basically means a twice-baked biscuit.  The dough is formed into an oblong log and baked. Once cooled, it is cut into slices and each side baked a little longer.  The result is a slightly crispy treat.  This one is filled with some of the bounty from my agricultural region, apricots and almonds. A little bit of orange enhances the flavor of them. It is a great combination!

For best results, use California dried apricots.  I grew up in Apricot Country and California "cots" are the best!

Apricot, Almond & Orange Biscotti

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cups almonds, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup dried apricots, sliced
Juice & zest of 1/2 orange

Heat oven to 325 degrees and line a cookie tray with parchment paper.

Sift the flour and baking powder in a bowl, then stir in the sugar. Add the almonds and apricots.

Lightly beat the eggs and add to the mixture along with the orange juice and zest; mix until combined.

On a well floured surface, roll the mixture out onto a log about 3 ½ inches wide. The  biscotti mixture is quite wet you can be really liberal with the flour here to avoid sticking. Keep your hands well floured to roll and shape the log. Transfer to prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a slight golden crust has formed. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray completely.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees. Once cooled, transfer the log to a cutting board and, with a sharp kitchen knife or serrated bread knife, diagonally cut the log into biscotti about ½ an inch in thickness.

Place the biscotti back on the baking sheet, with cut side exposed.  Return to oven and bake for 10 minutes on each side until lightly golden.  Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Cutting the baked biscotti loaf into diagonal slices leaves more surface area to toast.