Recipe - Italian Anise Cookies (Biscotti Danici)

Theresa Grant, HWWK11b
One half cup Butter, softened
1 1/3 cup Sugar
One half teaspoon Salt
1 md Orange, zest only, finely
grated
1 md Lemon, zest only, finely
grated
1 tablespoon Anise seed
3 Eggs
3 cup Flour
2 One half teaspoon Baking powder
One half teaspoon Baking soda
2 cup Almonds, coarsley chopped
toasted

CHOCOLATE FOR DIPPING
6 ounce Semisweet chocolate, melted

DESCRIPTION: Crunchy, almond biscotti perfect for dunking in coffee, tea
or your favorite dessert wine. Can be dipped in chocolate, too!

Preheat oven to 325. Beat together butter, sugar, salt, lemon and orange
zest and anise seed until light. Add eggs one at a time, blending after
each addition. Stir in flour, baking powder and soda, and nuts. Divide
dough into thires. With buttered fingers, shape each portion into a log,
about 12 inches long and 1 One half inches in diameter. Place logs on
wellgreased baking sheets (two logs on one sheet, third log on a second
sheet). Using palms, flatten loaves to about 1inch thickness. Bake 25
minutes, rotating sheets midway through baking. Remove loaves from oven,
reduce heat to 275. Using a thin bladed knife, cut loaves at a 45degree
angle into 3/4inch slices. Lay slices, cutside down, 1 One half inches apart
on baking sheets. Bake an additional 40 minutes, or until very dry. Cool
cookies on rack. Store airtight 10 days. CHOCOLATEDIPPED BISCOTTI. Melt 6
ounce of semisweet chocolate. Line 2 large baking sheets with waxed paper. Dip
Three fourths inch of both ends of cooled cookies in melted chocolate, lay on papered
sheets to dry. From "The Joy of Cookies," formatted by Theresa Grant,
HWWK11b.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini