Orange Bittersweet Biscotti

The rain is gone and it couldn’t be a more beautiful, crisp, clear day!  I’m sitting on the patio of my backyard being hit by blasts of wind carrying little seeds and an assortment of pollen, feeling very thankful that I don’t get allergies.  Melvin and Jenny are both grazing the grass like cows, and there’s a humming bird buzzing around the magnolia tree.  It’s not really a day to hole up in the kitchen, but I think I’ll swap out spring cleaning for spring baking and honor the entrance of the new season.  For in these coming months, the wind will no doubt bring along some life-changing turns.  My Mom and I depart for our Mediterranean cruise in less than a week, and following that I will be moving out of my parents house and into a new life for myself again.  I’m excited for a fresh start and new environment.  We’re approaching two years since my Dad’s incident, and now we’re in a place of contentment and control.  Instead of helping him everyday gain his life back, it’s time for me to think more about my own.  I will miss living in my beautiful room and walking my dogs every morning in this neighborhood, and I will miss cooking dinner for my parents at night.   Regardless, I will not be too far away that I can’t come home to do my laundry and mooch off my parents.  But it’s time to kickstart my future again.

So to usher in this fresh, but bittersweet start, I thought an Orange Bittersweet Chocolate Biscotti would be a nice, sweet crunch to get me going.  Probably delicious dipped in coffee for an extra jolt.  Enjoy!

 

(basic dry ingredients and procedure based off of Giada’s biscotti recipe, but I tweaked it to make it my own.  Just had to give the girl a shout out. Love her.  Wouldn’t wanna steal her thunder.  Not yet at least. ;)

 

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¾ cup sugar

½ cup (1 stick) room temperature, unsalted butter

1 tbsp grated orange zest

¼ tsp salt

2 large eggs

4 oz shaved/chopped bittersweet chocolate

 

Preheat oven to 350°

1st) Whisk together flour and baking powder.

2nd)  Beat the butter and the sugar until fabulously fluffy.

3rd) Head outside to your orange tree and pick an orange.

4th) I'm using two small ones.  (But if you don't have an orange tree one large naval orange will do the job.)

5th)  Grate the oranges on a cheese grater.  This is the part where nine times out of ten I grate my thumb knuckle.  So I caution you.

Tart!!! but sweet!

6th)  Add the orange zest (it can be a little over a tablespoon) to your butter and sugar and whip up.  mmm it smells fresh.

If you look close you can almost see the flecks of zest!
7th)  Beat in your room-temperature large eggs one at a time.

8th)  Then gradually add your flour mixture.

9th)  Chop up your chocolate.  I just take a knife and graze the edge of it.  Some chunks are good, but a lot of flakes help distribute the chocolate through the dough. (and this step could have definitely been done ahead of time. :)

10th)  Mix into the dough.

11th)  Mmmm!!!! sooo good!  only thing better than the chocolate orange combo is chocolate orange dough!  use a spatula to really incorporate it all.

12th)  So pretty.  Now on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, form two long logs of dough.

13th)  Bake logs until golden brown about 35-40 minutes. Leave space between them they spread out like mad.

14th)  When baked, lift with the parchment paper and move the loaves onto a wrack to cool.

15th)  Once cooled for about twenty minutes.  Slice the biscotti loaves on a diagonal into 1/2" slices.  

16th)  Then arrange cut side down on a baking sheet to pop back in the oven for about 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned.  (bi-scotti = twice baked!)
Once cooled, enjoy these fresh, orangey, chocolatey, crunchy, stylish, spring cookies!!! ;)