Fruitcake Biscotti

We loved this for Christmas morning with coffee.  And every morning after until they were gone! The recipe makes about 4 dozen generously sized biscotti. They were perfectly crisp and perfectly soft.

This is Martha's recipe:

• INGREDIENTS

  4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 4 large eggs plus 1 beaten large egg white, divided
• 1 1/2 cups sliced blanched almonds
• 1 cup candied citrus peel
• 2 cups mixed dried fruit, diced small
• Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using paddle attachment, combine flour, granulated sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Add butter and beat on medium-high until coarse crumbs form. With mixer on low, add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in almonds, citrus peel, and dried fruit.
2. On two parchment-lined baking sheets, shape dough into four 3-inch-wide logs. Brush with egg white; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake until just set in middle, 30 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks. With a serrated knife, cut logs on the diagonal into 1/4-inch slices. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets until just golden, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool on sheets on racks.

Dark Chocolate Buttercrunch (adapted from King Arthur Flour)

What a piece of cake - er, candy - this recipe is. From King Arthur Flour, it's a lot like a Heath Bar. I made double their recipe.

Update: December 31, 2015 - I made this again with dried cranberries added to the nuts (cashews, almonds, pecans, walnuts).

• 2 cups unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt (sea salt) plus more sea salt flakes or crystals
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 4-5 cups diced and chopped pecans, walnuts and slivered and sliced almonds.  I used mostly toasted ones. 
• 5-1/3 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped; or any combination of chips, squares, etc.
• Chocolate candy topping if desired 

Instructions:

Melt the butter in a deep and big saucepan.  Stir in salt, sugar, water, corn syrup. Bring this mixture to a boil and boil gently over medium heat. I stirred and used a med. high temperature on the stove. It's frothy and light for about 12 minutes and then it turns caramel and less frothy as it gets to 280-300 degrees. As soon as it turns to caramel, it can quickly heat to 300 so watch carefully and use a thermometer.  Don't burn. Take it off the heat. I have a thermometer that alarms at temp. 
At the same time that the sugar mixture is first gently bubbling, spread half the nuts on a large cookie sheet which has been light greased with butter. The nuts should be evenly packed. Top with half the chocolate.

When the syrup is ready, immediately pour over nuts and chocolate and top with the rest of the chocolate.  Press down.

I poured a layer of chocolate over this. See the chocolate in the recipe for Caramel Nut Turtles on this blog. About a cup. Spread over and sprinkle with sea salt flakes or large crystals.

Cool in the garage overnight.

Break into uneven chunks by cutting with knife.

Get Sauced for the Holidays

Cranberries are plentiful on the southern coast of Massachusetts. In fact, Massachusetts is the second producer of cranberries in the country!

I've been canning this cranberry sauce for years and will be making plenty this year.

5 pkg. of fresh cranberries
4 thin-skinned oranges
2 cups white sugar and 2 cups brown sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2-3 T orange-flavored liqueur

First, chop 1 pkg. of the cranberries and 1 orange, unpeeled but seeded and cut into 16ths in the Cuisinart or grind through the coarse blade of your meat grinder. Transfer the fruit to a bown and mix in the salt, 3 T sugar and the liqueur.  Let this sit for a day in the refrigerator.

Zest the other three oranges and juice them.

Place the 4 pkg. of cranberries, all the sugar, 1 cup of orange juice, the zest in a roomy pan. Boil, stir and cover for 4-5 min. Mix in the refrigerated cranberry/orange/liqueur mix at the last minute.

Process in a water bath for 15-20 minutes.