Every December I find myself scrounging around trying to find last years list of proposed Christmas cookies, and trying to remember what cookies I made, and what cookies everyone liked best.

This year I’m making note of everything.

I’ve made several different kinds of biscotti, and I have Many Thoughts on how biscotti should be properly made.

Biscotti aren’t supposed to be “high fat”; a biscotti recipe without butter is the correct way (or the traditional Italian way) to make biscotti. I hate the “less fat” designation because it makes you think something is missing, rather than something is made correct.

Biscotti are for dipping into hot drinks. They are supposed to be crunchy and hard. If you make biscotti with butter, they may hold the flavor better, but they don’t properly absorb the liquid when you dunk them in tea or cocoa (or coffee).

Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich

Chocolate Biscotti with Less Fat

These “low-fat” biscotti are very delicious, and my new favorite biscotti recipe–dutch process cocoa AND chocolate.

YUM.

Simply Sensational Cookies by Nancy Baggett

Cranberry Ginger Spice Biscotti
Spiced Chocolate Biscotti

Nope. The spices were interesting, but the butter made the texture all wrong, so I gave them all away. I learned my lesson–don’t even try making biscotti if the recipe has butter. I won’t like it.

The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook by King Arthur Flour

Orange-Cranberry Biscotti

The KAF cookie book has two recipes for biscotti–Traditional Italian or American Biscotti. You then try any of the variations with your choice of base recipe.

I of course used the Traditional Italian base.

Couple things I’ve discovered making biscotti. First, even when using parchment paper, lightly grease the paper. It makes it much easier to slide the hot biscotti loaf onto the cutting board without burning your hands. Second, in a tip I learned in David Lebovitz’s Room For Dessert, once you blop the the dough into a log (or logs), wet your hands to shape and smooth the log–it makes the sticky dough much easier to handle.