Any Way You Want It Biscotti

I didn't used to like biscotti. Dry, hard, relatively flavourless cookies - who wants that? Then one day a few years ago I tried my step dad's mom's biscotti. The way she made it was plain, with no added flavours or extras except for vanilla, and the taste was so deliciously addictive.

I got the recipe from her (and wrote out the instructions in a weird way but thankfully I understand them and hopefully you will understand what I've written - if not please let me know!). I've made this biscotti recipe in several different ways over the years. Pumpkin spice, white chocolate & pistachio, Smarties (Smarties are better than M&M's by the way), almonds, and chopped up Crispy Crunch bar. The two biscotti pictured here are almond and Crispy Crunch. I did try another recipe for cinnamon sugar biscotti, and that was good, but this is the recipe that I go back to over and over again.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Banana Nut Shortbread
Caramel Almond Tiger Cookies
Snickerdoodles
Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Any Way You Want It Biscotti

2 to 2 1/2 cups flour (I usually add 2 1/2 cups but if it seems like too much add 2)
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
optional add ins: chopped up nuts (almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, etc), chocolate chunks or chips, dried fruit, spices (cinnamon, pumpkin spice, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, etc), chopped up chocolate bar, cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a baking sheet (parchment paper, silpat). Mix together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices if adding them). Mix together wet ingredients separately (eggs, vanilla, vegetable oil). If adding anything else, add that now.

Spread the dough on the prepared baking sheet into a good size rectangle (the dough doesn't rise that much so spread the dough approximately how high you want the biscotti to be). Wet the back of a spoon to spread the dough if necessary (it can get sticky). Bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

Take the biscotti out of the oven, and cut the rectangle "hot dog way" (sorry had to add that in there! it means the longer way). Then cut each new rectangle into strips, turn them on their sides, and bake for another 10 minutes (or 20 minutes if you want to make sure they're good and crunchy/hard). Whatever shape and size you cut them into now is what you'll end up with so if you want them smaller, cut them into more pieces. Remove the biscotti from the oven and transfer to cooling racks.