Biscotti Anyone?

Welcome to my latest baking interest--biscotti.  My goal is to improve on the break-your-teeth coffee shop variety and come up with a very crunchy, but not hard product.  These are Chocolate Tangerine Biscotti and the recipe needs some work yet.  I shall increase the tangerine or orange flavour and mellow the chocolate by adding more vanilla.  While I achieved the crunchy result, they were more crumbly than I'd like so I also plan to bake them 5 minutes less next time.  Stay tuned!  

F is for Finland

F is also for fika and Finnish coffee, which is all that's needed to go with these Lemon Anise Biscotti for a special treat.  To perfect these all I need to do is substitute anise extract for the ground anise seeds. Unfortunately, the anise seeds I used were a little stale and lacking in flavour intensity. I'm also planning to increase the nutritional value and add oat bran next time. Here's the recipe. 

Lemon Anise Biscotti

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 teaspoon anise seed extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons grated lemon rind

Beat eggs & sugar for 2 minutes.  Add oil, extracts, and lemon rind. Mix well. Sift flour, baking powder & salt. Add to liquid mixture and beat. Divide dough in half.  Shape each into 12 inch rectangle on parchment lined baking sheet and flatten to 1/2 inch thickness. Sprinkle with a little flour to prevent sticking to hands or rolling pin, if used. Bake at 350º for 35 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut into scant 3/4 inch slices. Place cut side down on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 5-7 minutes until firm and golden brown. Cool on wire racks.  Store in airtight container.