White Chocolate Lemon Biscotti

These biscotti were whipped up short notice to fill a sudden craving my mom had for something sweet. I've had quite a few biscotti recipes bookmarked and was really intrigued by all the different methods used. Some recipes used butter, others oil, or even both. And a few recipes I came across used neither. For my purpose, I decided to go the traditional route and make my biscotti with olive oil.

Now, if you know me well enough by now, I hardly ever make a full recipe. However, this time I went one step further and actually didn't complete the full list of instructions. Biscotti gets its crunchy texture from a "twice-baked" method. The dough is formed into a log, baked, removed from the oven, sliced, then baked again. This makes biscotti the perfect dipping cookie for coffee, teas, or simply milk. However, I don't drink coffee or milk and although I love tea, I don't have it all too often. So I decided to make "soft-baked" biscotti. After baking the dough as a log, removing it from the oven, and slicing it, I allowed the cookies to cool and left it at that. Then I dipped the bottoms in white chocolate...well actually, I tried to dip them, but without success. What I found worked better and yielded a more aesthetically pleasing result was simply spooning the melted chocolate onto the bottom of the biscotti, then spreading it cleanly with a small angled spatula. Then I set them carefully down on their rounded (undipped) side and allowed them to dry.

Well, whichever way you decide to make these--crisp or soft, dipped or spread with chocolate--I assure you, you'll love the combination of delicate



Below I'm posting the recipe in its entirety. Including the steps that I decided to skip. Because I tend to adapt recipes, I often make mistakes when retyping them into my blog. So please if you see any discrepancies, let me know and I will amend it as soon as possible.

White Chocolate Lemon Biscotti (adapted from here and here)

1/4 cup light olive oil
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract (or to taste)
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cups (6-ounce) bar premium white chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended. mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts and zest, then beat in the eggs. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; gradually stir into egg mixture.

Divide dough in half. Form two logs (12x2 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Dough will be very sticky; wet hands with cool water to handle dough more easily.

Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light brown. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 275 degrees F.

Cut logs on diagonal into 3/4 inch thick slices. Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until dry; cool.

Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or using your preferred method. When the biscotti is cool, dip, spread, or drizzle white chocolate and allow the cookies to dry on a cookie sheet before storing in an air tight container.