Pistachio Biscotti
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks butter, softened
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup pistachios, shelled
extra flour for hands
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place your oven racks closest to the middle of the oven as you possibly can. To bake evenly the middle is the best place to position your cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl beat, with electric beater on medium speed beat butter until light and creamy.
3. Beat in sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and baking powder.
5. Gradually add the dry mixture into the large bowl until blended well. On the lowest speed gradually add pistachios and chocolate chips. Form into a ball. Remove the dough from the bowl to a pastry sheet.
6. Cover an ungreased cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle the dough and your hands with flour. Shape the dough into four 12-inch by 3 inch logs or as close to these dimensions as you can. Bake logs 25 to 35 minutes or until the logs are lightly browned and firm when touched in the middle. Remove from the oven. Leave the oven on.
7. Cool logs on cookie sheets for 10 to 12 minutes. If possible place the biscotti log on a cutting board, or leave on the parchment covered cookie sheet and cut with a serrated knife (bread knife) into about ½ inch diagonal slices. After slicing biscotti, space the cookies sporadically standing up them up on the cookie sheet. Bake the biscotti for 10 minutes or until lightly toasted in this position. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool completely before serving. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry area.
8. ENJOY – Biscotti is best when baked with love…..
Biscotti are my favorite cookies, especially homemade pistachio biscotti. Pistachios don’t come cheap, but their flavor really comes to life when added to biscotti so they are definitely worth the cost. Problem is, everyone wants to snack on these little green jewels, so I’m forced to hide them until it’s time to make biscotti again!
When I was a young girl, biscotti were cookies that my Gramma dunked in her wine. I never really saw anyone dunk their biscotti in wine until recently when I traveled to, and fell in love with, Italy. My husband, Tom, and I had the pleasure of meeting his cousins for dinner one balmy night, after which we were served biscotti for desert. The sight of one of his cousins dunking a biscotti in his wine glass brought that touching vision of Gramma front and center……I felt very much at home.
My paternal Gramma was a tiny, 4’ 10” Italian lady who resided with my family in Queens 6 months of the year, and the other 6 with my father’s sister in Long Island. Gramma spoke with an Italian accent even though she was born on the Lower East Side’s Little Italy section of Manhattan. She loved to stay with us in Queens because she could walk to church and the local park, the two places closest to her heart. She was always coming or going to church, her rosary beads in tow. Coming home from school I would find her in her tiny room off the hallway either reading, watching TV, or praying the rosary … which I almost sensed were attached to her fingers! She also had a habit of twiddling her thumbs, which she could continue for hours. Some rare moments I find myself doing this to remind me of her. The park was Gramma’s other home away from home. She brought me there when I was in kindergarten, and I would sing and dance for her friends. In the days before there were senior centers, the benches in parks were filled with seniors who would gather there, talking about their children, grandchildren and just plain reminiscing.
Gramma lived to 90 years old and drank a glass of red wine 3 times a day; a small glass of wine at breakfast, then one at lunch and lastly one at dinner. She was always smiling and happy to see me. Anytime I went into her room to watch a TV program she would gladly change the channel to accommodate me. There was a dollar for me every holiday from Gramma. If it was Ground Hog’s Day I would get a dollar and, even if there were no holidays, she would make one up. How could I not adore this woman?
Biscotti will always remind me of my wonderful Gramma. Those memories are the nearest and dearest to my heart, and I will always bake biscotti in her honor!
Somebody's Mom 
Reblogged this on Somebody's Mom: Home Cooking Recipes and Cookies for our Troops.
What a wonderful memory! Pistachio biscotti — how fabulous! Pistachios and Chocolate chips — two of my favorite food groups!!
Delish! I made a batch this week and got about 35 cookies. They are not lasting.