Forgive me. I OD’d on cookies this week coupled with work and family related issues. One of my favorite uncles is not doing well and its just a matter of time. He lives in Vienna Austria, so the distance is stressful on my family here. Thankfully I have another uncle ( paternal) checking in on him and we are getting daily updates from friends. It seems death and illness is rampant with most of my acquaintances lately. So many sad stories lately.So you can imagine cookies were the last thing on my mind these past few days. But baking is always great therapy and a way to unwind.
I chose what looked like an easy recipe to pull together.The appeal of Holiday Biscotti With Cranberries and Pistachios was no chilling time! My dried cranberries didnt look all bright and red like Bon Appetites photograph, but I loved the flavors of anise, lemon, and pistachios mingling with the tart cranberries. I used Anise extract and I didn’t have whole anise seed. I wonder why I don’t use that flavoring more often in my baked goods. My only problem was baking two sheets at a time and the bottom sheet burning a bit when I toasted the sliced biscotti. That was easily remedied by scraping the burnt bits away like toast. I used an off set spatula to aid in the dipping of chocolate as my pot wasn’t deep enough. The offset spatula made the chocolate easy to handle.
You can find the recipe here.

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