Busy as a Beaver!

I think I'm in the midst of an end-of-break craft crunch. I know I have a serious semester of school work ahead of me, so I'm working hard (and having fun!) to get my fill of crafting and baking.

I happily learned that my brother and sister love biscotti, and since I love baking it, we have a perfect match!


The basic biscotti recipe I use:
-Cream together 1 stick butter and 3/4 cup sugar
-Mix in 3 eggs, 1 at a time
-Add 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp almond extract, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt
-Add 3 cups flour, 1 cup at a time
-Add 1.5 cups ground (or coursely chopped, your choice) toasted almonds
**there are many options for spicing up this recipe - see below**

-Preheat oven to 350F
-Shape into a rectangle 1 inch high and about 4 inches wide
-Bake for 20-25 minutes
-Let cool for about 5 minutes
-Slice into 1 inch wide pieces
-Bake on one side for 10 minutes, flip and bake for an additional 10 minutes

My brother was into candy bar varieties this year, so this is what I came up with:

Almond Joy Version
-Add 3/4 cup toasted coconut to the batter
-Once completely cooled, dip in melted chocolate chips and sprinkle with more coconut

Peanut Butter Cup Version
-Add 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter to the basic recipe.
-Reduce the almonds to 3/4 cup (and I use coursely chopped nuts)
-Once completely cooled, dip in melted chocolate chips

Chunky Chocolate Chips and Nuts (pictured above)
-Keep the almonds coursely chopped (I even added a few whole almonds)
-Add 3/4 cups chocolate chips to the batter

In crafting news:
I'm helping my sister to complete some cosmetic bags for her friends. I love the combinations of buttons she used to decorate the bags!



I have more to post, but I'll let you bake some biscotti first!