White Chocolate Dipped Cherry Almond Biscotti

When I came up with the idea to send my dad 70 biscotti for his 70th birthday, I had no intention of baking 7 different kinds of biscotti.  The problem was that once I started my biscotti recipe search, I just couldn't seem to stop myself.  There were so many amazing looking biscotti recipes that I wanted to try, I had a hard time narrowing my search down to seven.

After spending more time that I should have, scrutinizing and analyzing each recipe, these are the seven recipes that I finally decided to bake: 







classic almond biscotti














 dark chocolate biscotti
















cinnamon sugar biscotti














limoncello biscotti















coconut biscotti













chocolate peanut butter biscotti 












white chocolate dipped cherry almond biscotti







And just in case you need a little reminder about the other 9 biscotti recipes that I've already blogged - here they are.  (In no particular order)







crisp almond biscotti 















 
banana biscotti












 
cherry almond biscotti













chocolate almond biscotti












 
chocolate chip biscotti

chocolate pistachio biscotti














cranberry orange biscotti













pumpkin biscotti















toffee crunch biscotti







As you can tell, there is no shortage of biscotti recipes on the internet.  My recipe for white chocolate dipped cherry almond biscotti came from yummycooking.us.  I changed it up and put my own little spin on it, but I still have to give credit to yummycooking for the original recipe. 

This is the first biscotti recipe that I've made with cornmeal in the dough.  I wasn't sure how this was going to change the texture of the cookie but I was curious enough to give it a try. 

White Chocolate Dipped Cherry Almond Biscotti
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup finely ground cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1/4 cup blanched slivered almonds

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until pale in color, about 3 minutes. Add almond extract and milk and whisk to combine.

Add dry ingredients and stir dough together with a spoon or spatula.
Stir in cherries and almonds.

Cover dough in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator while oven preheats. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Take dough out of refrigerator and split into two equal pieces. Shape each half into a log about 2 1/2 inches wide and 11 inches long.

Bake until golden on the edges, about 30 minutes.
 

Let logs cool slightly then cut on the bias with a serrated knife to create 1/2 inch cookies.

Place cookies back on baking sheet and bake until dried and toasted, another 15-20 minutes. Let cool to the touch then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

The original recipe called for white chocolate chips to be baked into the biscotti and my plan was to leave the white chocolate out altogether but when I tasted the biscotti I thought they needed a little bit of sweetness.  The cornmeal really added a nice corn flavor to the cookie but it really didn't taste much like a biscotti so I decided to dip them in white chocolate. 

Ohhhh yea.  That is exactly what these little cookies needed.  I'm not normally a white chocolate fan but these biscotti were just  begging for a thin layer of creamy white chocolate to be smeared across the bottom. 
Yum.

Ciao!