Everybody Loves A Cookie Exchange!

A friend of mine hosted a cookie exchange this past weekend. There were 10 or 11 of us, 5 dozen cookies each, about 140 cookies in total. Daaangerous! ( I lost 2 lbs last week, ask me if I gained them back? Go ahead, ask, I dare you). It was so much fun though :). The variety of cookies was great- just to name a few: Italian chocolate cookies, fruit pillow cookies, chocolate mint crinkles, ginger cookies, Mexican wedding cookies and on and on.

My cookies were a bit of an adventure, and almost a complete failure! I was close to tears on the Friday before the party, thinking I was going to go to Wegmans and buy 5 dozen cookies. Thankfully I gave it another shot on Saturday (day of the party) and found my error. A 1/2 cup of butter is ONE stick NOT two. I don't know what I was thinking? I ended up with 40 useless, cranberry orange shortbread cookies. It was a definite face-palm moment, which ended with a lot of flour on my face...

Needless to say, once I realized my mistake and made two more batches using only 1 stick of butter each, they came out great, super tasty and smelled soooo good.


Cranberry Orange Biscotti


You will need:

• 1/2 cup butter, unsalted and softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp orange zest
• 2 tbsp orange liqueur
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1  1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1  1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 3/4 cup almonds, toasted and finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in the orange zest and liqueur. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and stir into creamed mixture until combined. Stir in almonds and cranberries.

Lightly flour your surface and hands and form your batter into a disk. Cut it in half and set one half aside. 

Roll each half into a log about 1 1/2 inches wide and 10 inches long. Set the rolls lengthwise on a baking sheet with parchment paper at least 3 inches apart, and flatten slightly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm to the touch and slightly brown on top. Cool for 10-15 minutes, the transfer to cutting board and slice each log crosswise, at a diagonal, into 1/2 inch wide slices.

Lay them cut side down on baking sheet and return to oven for an additional 10 minutes, turn them over and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks and dip or drizzle with chocolate if desired.

Enjoy!

Source: allrecipes.com