Chocolate-Brownie Biscotti

Confession: Kevin's recipe was a backup. I didn't know what to make for Kevin at first. My indecisiveness kicked in, as always. I did, however, pick out a recipe for Helen (his fiancé[!!]) as a backup in case I couldn't find a Filipino cookie recipe. When I did find a recipe, I decided to use the other recipe as Kevin's gift. I found it in one of the grocery store magazines I used to constantly buy. This one was from Good Housekeeping and specific to the holidays.

Sprinkles Biscotti

I'm somewhat in denial.

My little cousin is a college student. After graduating high school last spring, Carly is now a Freshman at Gonzaga. How did this happen?

I swear she was only recently that little girl who sent ME care packages (with Nonni's help) when I was away at Central. I even still have the paper fall wreath she made me.

Like it or not, it's now her turn to be away for school. So of course I had to send her a care package. Right away I knew I wanted to send her some cookies like my mom used to send me. Obviously the cookies had to have sprinkles in them. This is where my 24/7 Food Network-watching came in handy: one of the network's newer stars is a food blogger and cook named Molly Yeh and she's just as obsessed with sprinkles as Carly is. She even made Sprinkles Biscotti in an episode of her show Girl Meets Farm, something I immediately decided to eventually make for Carly (why not the birthday that followed, I'm not sure). They seem like the kind of cookie that travels well.

Coffee Chocolate Chip Biscotti

I feel like I've given biscotti to almost every family member who I give baked goods to as a gift. OK, so this is an exaggeration: there are still a few to check off the list. Specifically, the one person I hadn't yet made it for is the one I wanted to: Chiara. My September Girl. I felt almost obligated. So I decided that's what I would make for her for her birthday this year.

As for the flavor, I didn't want to do a fall flavor. I didn't want to repeat the ones I'd done before and wasn't sure if she liked maple. There is one other flavor that she loves: coffee. You know all those memes and mugs that say things like "I can't function until I've had at least 2 cups of coffee"? Yeah, that's Chiara.

I wasn't sure if it would be easy to find a coffee-flavored biscotti recipe. After all, it's a cookie that is often eaten with a cup of coffee. Starbucks even has individually wrapped biscotti at their cash registers. Still, I was able to find one on Food.com, a site that posts recipes submitted by readers.

Chocolate-Coated Lemon Almond Biscotti

I'm still kinda on "dark chocolate" for Anthony. And "lemon." Two flavors that I discovered go together when I first successfully made macarons. So I decided to do both for Anthony's present. I realized that (almost) every year so far I've made biscotti for someone. And for whatever reason, I decided that this year was gonna be Anthony's year to receive biscotti. I pretty quickly found a recipe that fit the bill, combining both the original recipe and a suggested variation, in Crazy About Cookies, one of my many baking cookbooks.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Biscotti

It's that time of year! Time for me to wear out myself and my KitchenAid mixer in order to give the best gift I can think to give: baked goods. Picking recipes out is often hard because even when I have specific flavors to go off of, there are a lot of options in the form of cookies, brownies, etc. Still, I somehow find recipes for everyone.

Nonni's was a bit easy. I decided to make her something with coconut in it. I do have a few coconut recipes saved for her and Mom on Pinterest so I looked at those before deciding on Coconut Chocolate Chip Biscotti from Desserts Required.

Double Chocolate Decadence Biscotti

About a year and a half ago Anthony and his now-wife Kati went to Italy for a couple weeks. When they came back (and possibly before they left. I can't remember and I can be horrible at noticing these things sometimes) Kati seemed to have a love and appreciation for all things Italian, specifically food. She even wanted as much Italian food and influence as possible for their wedding. So for her Christmas gift this year I decided to use a recipe from a biscotti cookbook I got during a recent trip to Portland. After looking at all the chocolate recipes and even trying to find a peanut butter one (since last year's white chocolate peanut butter fudge was successful. Maybe an internet search next year), I finally decided on Double Chocolate Decadence.

Almond Biscotti

My parents have been to Italy 3 times. My mom is just in love with the place. She even took an Italian cooking class last fall through the community center. Which is why I decided on biscotti for her Mother's Day gift. Since I've only made biscotti once (Nonni or someone got a jar of dry ingredients for biscotti back when I was in junior high so she, Auntie Vicki, and Auntie Chauch showed me how) I decided on a simple recipe. I ended up also choosing a recipe from one of the magazines I've been typing up.

For those who don't know: biscotti are twice-baked cookies. You make the dough, form it into two logs, and bake the first time. They come out like a soft cookie. Then, you cut the logs into strips and lay the strips on a cookie sheet cut side up and bake them again. The end result is a crunchy cookie. Also, if your dough looks crumbly like this:

don't worry. I think that's how it's supposed to look since I put a handful of dough in my fist and got this:

It's almost like Play-doh. Kneading it in step 3 will help bring it together too.