Dreamsicle-esque biscotti

I'm a little overdue with talking about a certain sweet treat we made a couple weeks ago. We had a guest (Hello Mari K!) come by and we were looking for something just a little different... it has been awhile since we made biscotti, so I took a chance on these Creamy Orange Biscotti.

I have to start out by saying that this biscotti was a little frustrating. The recipe is a variation to a basic "Italian"-style biscotti recipe as it doesn't call for any oil or butter to be used. I do typically prefer this type of biscotti as they tend to be a little crunchier and make for a perfect dipper.

The frustrating part? This recipe has you add an additional one-quarter cup of liquid to an already soft and sticky dough, without off-setting it with any more flour. I started out following the recipe as directed, but felt the need to add another one-quarter cup of flour as the dough just seemed a little off to me. If you try this recipe, the dough is still sticky, so be sure to use wet fingers or a wet dough scraper to help you shape and smooth it out. The biscotti log did end up baking fine, at least on the outside, but when I sliced into it, the texture inside was weirdly open with actually a few visible holes! I don't think I've ever had this happen with biscotti before, but there is a first time for everything I guess. Could it have been the additional flour? I don't know for sure (I know I didn't over-mix), but it was just too wet and spread too much without it.

I finished slicing the log and sent them for their second bake to crisp them up. Even being a little "hole-y", they held together fine and didn't fall apart. As they cooled down, I couldn't wait any longer and had to try them and see if the texture distracted from the taste. I was happy to find that they had a delicate orange flavor with wisps of visible zest scattered throughout. Creamy is in the title, so where does that fit in with these crunchy slices? We dunked the bottoms of each in melted sweet white chocolate to add a luscious dreamsicle-esque quality!

Recipes
Creamy Orange Biscotti