Biscotti

Break out the cookbooks and the baking pans...... that's what I did this week. I've started to shell some of the pecans and I figured there must be something worthwhile I can do with them instead of just filling up a Santa cookie jar with pecan halves.

There's a cute little bookshelf at the end of the island in our kitchen, and of course I filled it up with cookbooks that I've collected. Years ago, I had dozens of cookbooks and I used them all on a regular basis. But when I stopped doing all of that mega-cooking and baking, I weeded out the collection and just kept the basic volumes and the vintage cookbooks. In this pared-down collection, I had a little book called simply "Biscotti."

I bought that particular book because it reminded me of my Aunt Dolly, who made biscotti every week. With some of these Italian biscuits, she would twice-bake them to get them crisp; with others, she would just bake them once and the result was a softer cookie. Grandpa and Uncle Mino liked the crisp ones so they could be dunked into tea or coffee. Grandma and Daddy liked the softer biscotti because they said dunking was too messy and neither one wanted crumbs in their coffee.

So as I paged through the Biscotti cookbook, I was looking for a recipe with pecans that didn't look too difficult, or didn't have a list of 37 ingredients. What I found was a recipe for almond biscotti with lemon zest. Well, I don't like almonds (not my favorite nut) and my husband doesn't like lemon (not his favorite flavor, except for Lemon Bars). But me being me, who is known for tweaking every recipe in sight, I figured that I could substitute pecans for almonds, and orange zest for lemon zest.

And that's exactly what I did..... and I baked a batch of biscotti that would make Aunt Dolly proud. I did twice-bake them, because we do like them crisp, but when I make them again (with this never-ending supply of pecans) I think I'll eliminate the second baking for half the batch and see how they taste as a softer cookie. (I don't like crumbs in my tea either.)

I also have a Christmas cookie cookbook, and there are scads of cookie recipes that call for every kind of nut under the sun. With all the pecans we have, every cookie I make will be studded with pecans, not almonds and hazelnuts and cashews. Now that's an idea-- I wonder if we can grow cashews in Texas? (As if we don't have enough pecans....)