ITALIAN BISCOTTI - My grandmother's secret recipe

My grandmothers' both loved to cook.  They were both Italian, and created similar recipes.  In our house it became a running joke about who made the best sugo (pasta sauce), ravioli, and minestrone (to name a few).  It was quite the competition when they both showed up at our house for Sunday dinner, and expected us to tell them whose dish tasted better.  Around the holidays, my grandmothers' would make biscotti and we were "forced" to sample each of their cookies.  We learned to be very careful not to take more of one grandma's cookies than the other for fear we wouldn't get them anymore.

They each guarded their recipes like a lion guards her cubs. I remember watching one grandmother make sugo and trying to get the recipe out of her because of course nothing was written down.  She would say, "I added a little of this, and a little of that."  The thing is, sometimes that is exactly what she did.  She would open her refrigerator and take something wrapped in plastic out, smell it, and then throw it in the pot.  If I asked what it was, she would shrug and say, "left overs."  We never got food poisoning so I assume whatever she threw in there was edible... The end results always tasted delicious too.

I was digging threw some boxes that have been in my garage since I moved several years ago and I cam across a biscotti recipe written in my grandmother's had.  I have no recollection how I got her to write down the ingredients but I am not going to make the mistake of losing this again.

If you are going to bake these plan on spending the morning or afternoon at home as biscotti are labor intensive and take about 3 hours to make.

INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs, beaten    

1 cup sugar
1 cube butter
4 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp anise extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 small jar anise
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or almonds

Optional:
marsala or muskatel
amaretto
almond extract

I remember putting amaretto in my cookie batter to give it a sweeter taste.  I don't have the proportions here as she didn't write them down.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease a cookie sheet.

Cream butter.  then add sugar.  Gradually add beaten eggs and anise & vanilla extract.  Mix well.

In another bowl, sift flour and baking powder together.  Add about half of this to the wet mixture. When this is blended, add the nuts, mix, and then add the rest of the flour.

Put dough on a board and knead it. Separate the dough into 5 pieces.  Take one piece at a time and make a ball out of it.  If dough is too sticky you may need to add a little bit of flour to the board and/or your hands. Roll ball until smooth.  Then using both of your hands to shape ball of dough, roll it until it is about 12 inches long and 2 inches thick.

Place all 5 logs on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Don't worry if dough is pale when you take it out of the oven.

Place logs on board and cut into 1/2 inch slices on the diagonal.  Then place the cookies back on the cookie sheet and toast for about 10 minutes.  They should be firm and lightly browned when you remove them from the oven.