Cranberry Raisin and Almond Biscotti

Ever since I saw this recipe last month on Julia Child's food show rerun on PBS, I've been dreaming about making these Biscotti. This recipe happens to be in her book, "Baking with Julia". She was a remarkable chef no doubt about it. In fact she had a guest on her show who was making these wonderful delicious Biscotti with Currants. I did not have any currants in the house so I have substituted Currants with Cranberry, Almonds and Raisins. The rest of the recipe is as is. This is my first attempt at making Biscotti. I was'nt really happy with the looks as I wanted to post this recipe on my blog. But they tasted really good and I wanted to share this reipe. I'll try it again and hopefully get some good pictures.

The word "biscotti" in Italian is the plural form of biscotto and applies to any type of biscuit (in the UK sense of a very dry, hard cookie or cracker). The word originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-cooked/baked". To read more about Biscotti its available here .

Ingredients:

1) 1 cup all purpose flour

2) 1 cup cornmeal

3) 1 full egg and 1 yolk

4) 3/4 cup granulated sugar

5) 1 teaspoon salt

6) 1 stick unsalted butter

7) 1 cup mix of Cranberries, Raisins and Chopped Almonds

8) 1 teaspoon baking powder

* I used the Indian Head old fashioned stone ground yellow corn meal.

Preparation:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2) Sift together All purpose flour , cornmeal , salt , and Baking Powder. Add sugar.

3) Now bring the butter to room temperature.

4) Gently crumble the butter into the flour by hand . Add the Cranberry/Raisin/Almond mixture. Add the eggs and knead into a dough.

5) Grease a cookie sheet. Now roll the dough into a log. Gently flatten it a bit. I rolled the dough into two logs. It depends on the size of the cookie sheet.

5) Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. It will still be a little soft to the touch.

6) Cool the logs . Cool it for almost 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer them carefully to a cutting board and cut them diagonally into 3/4" thick slices. Arrange the slices so as to stand them ,as if you were to make a log. Bake for another 10 minutes.

7) Ready to serve.