Cranberry Almond and Chocolate Almond Biscotti

One of our favourite dunking cookies are the Biscotti's; dunk them in milk, coffee, espresso or cappuccino or enjoy them all on their own ~ they're perfectly delicious! We couldn't decide which ones to make so we made both to change things up a bit.  We made one batch of dough and divided it in half and incorporated the ingredients to each batch giving us the best of both cookies.  On one of my cross border shopping trips to the US I stumbled on Ocean Spray's Dried Cranberry's infused with pomegranate juice so I just had to grab a bag for my next baked recipe which were perfect; they really enhanced the flavour of the cookies

INGREDIENTS

 1 ½ cups softened butter

1 3/4 cups white sugar

6 eggs

1 teaspoon anise extract

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup chopped almonds divided

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time; beat until fluffy. Stir in the anise and vanilla extracts. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add them to the egg mixture and divide dough into two separate bowls; add 1/2 cup of almonds and 1/2 cup cranberries for the Cranberry Almond Biscotti and 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup almonds for the Chocolate Almond Biscotti. Stir with a spoon, as the dough comes together, knead by hand.

Divide the dough from each bowl in half. Roll each piece into a log about 15 inches long. Place logs onto cookie sheets, 2 to a sheet. Flatten the logs out until they are about 3 inches wide with a slight hump going down the middle. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, loaves should be firm. Cut the loaves into diagonal slices 1/2 inch wide, place the slices onto the cookie sheets and return to the oven. Toast on one side; turn them over to do the other side. Bake for another 7 to 10 mins until golden brown.

Decorate: The Cranberry Almond Biscotti were drizzled with white chocolate whereas the Chocolate Almond Biscotti were drizzled with both white and milk chocolate.