Lemon & Sour Cherry Biscotti

Last Christmas, I made some Chocolate Hazelnut biscotti for my SIL's parents, C&R, who have always been so good to me. The gift was a big hit last year, so I decided to do the same again this year, only changing up the flavours.

I decided to try out one of the items from Jodi's parcel, the dried sour cherries! I have coveted these little babies for, like, ever because I see so many recipes for them. Yet, I have never been able to find them around here - only the whole ones in syrup. And I was dying to open a package to try them out, so I thought this was a good reason to do just that!

Holy crap - talk about tart! Talk about sour! But good!

Here is the recipe I concocted for the biscotti. Again, this is as culinary school recipe I doctored, and it will require a scale.

Lemon & Sour Cherry Biscotti

85g butter
185g sugar
2 eggs
zest of one lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
2tsp vanilla
353g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 cup dried sour cherries
white chocolate, for melting, to decorate the top

Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Add the dry ingredients.

Knead the dough lightly and pat into a "half moon" shape for even cooking, about 3/4" thick. (The "half moon" thing is in the original culinary school recipe; it's a little deceiving. What that means is rounded sides and a slightly rounded top.)

Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch, dry and cracked-looking. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Slice with a serrated knife, and then bake again until crisp and dried out - another 20 minutes or so.

Cool completely. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top.

Nice flavour combination, actually. It worked out well and these turned out beautifully! When C&R received them on Christmas morning, they were very much looking forward to having some coffee.

Thanks again to Jodi for the parcel!