Biscotti is an easily adaptable gift idea

The Vindicator

When the holidays roll around, there’s no need to trot out brand new recipes. Just pick some of the favorites you have all year long and adapt them for gift-giving.

Flavorful and festive, biscotti can provide the canvas for your culinary creativity.

Cinnamon and Hazelnut Biscotti

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon salt

1‚Ñ4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup toasted hazelnuts

3‚Ñ4 cup sugar

1‚Ñ2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking liner. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in medium bowl; set aside. Coarsley chop hazelnuts in a food processor. Combine sugar and butter and mix until fluffy. Add orange zest and vanilla and mix well. Add eggs 1 at a time, blending just until incorporated after each addition. Add flour mixture and mix until just blended. Mix in hazelnuts until just blended. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 9x2 inch log. Place the logs on the baking sheet. Flatten each log to 12x2 and one-half inches. Bake 25 minutes or until very light golden and firm to touch. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes. Transfer the logs to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut logs diagonally into three-quarter inch wide slices. Place slices, cut side down on your baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes. Turn biscotti over, bake about 15 minutes more or until light golden and firm. Transfer biscotti to racks and cool.

Recipe from Christmas-Cookies.com.

Lemon Biscotti

11‚Ñ2 cup all-purpose flour

11‚Ñ2 teaspoons baking powder

1‚Ñ4 teaspoon salt

1‚Ñ4 cup butter (softened)

1‚Ñ2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

Zest of lemon

2 teaspoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons milk

Combine first three ingredients and set aside.

In mixer, beat butter and sugar until light. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add zest and juice. Stir. Remove bowl from mixer. Stir in half of the flour mixture by hand. Stir in milk. Add remaining flour mixture and combine well. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 9x2 inch log. Place the logs on the baking sheet. Flatten each log to 12x2 and one-half inches. Bake 25 minutes or until very light golden and firm to touch. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes. Transfer the logs to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut logs diagonally into three-quarter inch wide slices. Place slices, cut side down on your baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes. Turn biscotti over, bake about 15 minutes more or until light golden and firm. Transfer biscotti to racks and cool.

Recipe from BiscottiZone.com.

Almond Biscotti

31‚Ñ4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon salt

3‚Ñ4 cup butter or margarine, cut up

11‚Ñ4 cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons amaretto (almond-flavor liqueur)

11‚Ñ2 cups sliced almonds, lightly toasted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On waxed paper, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In large microwave-safe bowl, heat butter in microwave oven on high for one minute, or until butter melts, stirring once. With wire whisk, stir in sugar, eggs, and amaretto until smooth. With spoon, stir flour mixture and almonds into egg mixture until dough forms.

Divide dough in half. On ungreased large cookie sheet, with floured hands, shape one piece dough into 14x4 inch log (dough will be sticky). Repeat with remaining dough on another cookie sheet.

Place cookie sheet on 2 oven racks. Bake logs 25 to 30 minutes or until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower racks halfway through baking. Cool logs on cookie sheets on wire racks 20 minutes. Reset oven control to 325 degrees.

Transfer logs to cutting board. With serrated knife, cut each log crosswise into one-half inch thick diagonal slices. Place slices, cut side down, on same ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake slices 25 to 30 minutes or until golden on bottom, rotating sheets between upper and lower racks halfway through baking. With spatula, transfer biscotti to wire racks to cool completely. Store biscotti in tightly covered container at room temperature up to 2 weeks, or in freezer up to 6 months.

Recipe from Good Housekeeping.

Chocolate Biscotti

21‚Ñ4 cups all-purpose flour

1‚Ñ2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

12‚Ñ3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 large eggs

4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon amaretto

3‚Ñ4 cup hazelnuts, skin on

1‚Ñ2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, sugar, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks and amaretto. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until the dough comes together, about 1 minute. Add the hazelnuts and chocolate chips and mix until just incorporated.

Roll the dough into 3 logs about 10 inches by 2 inches and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes until light golden brown and remove from the oven. As soon as they are cool enough to handle, cut the logs on a slight diagonal into pieces 1‚Ñ3 inch thick and arrange cut side down on the sheets. Lower the heat to 275 degrees, return the pieces to the oven, and bake 20 minutes longer, until crisp and dry. Allow to cool.

Recipe from “Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages,” by Mario Batali.