Biscotti - the ever-evolving cookie...

We are getting more anxious as there are only a couple days until we get into the new house. I'm not really looking forward to dealing with the movers and mounds of cardboard boxes, but on the plus side, it should feel like Christmas opening them all up and discovering any bits and pieces of our things that we had forgotten about. We thought we would share another quick snap of the house, this time it is from the backyard deck area. We should get some pictures of the inside up once we get moved in - not too much longer!

I don't mean to whine, but I so miss my baking supplies! I am really trying to resist the urge to buy more as I already bought a baking sheet and a 9" x 13" pan so I could make the work treats. I know, I know... just a little bit longer and I'll get them all back!

Since I probably won't have much time to bake us any snacks this week, I thought I could get a batch of biscotti made for us to munch on the next few days. As there are endless ways to change up biscotti, we rarely end up making the same recipe twice, except for the Holiday baking spree we do each year. I wanted toss together a recipe today that was a touch different and we ended up with these Lavender-Scented Lemon Pistachio Biscotti.

The base recipe is not extremely different from other recipes, however, we used olive oil as the fat and used a combination of all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flours. You could use melted butter instead of the oil, but these biscotti are so flavorful already that I don't think you would notice much flavor the butter would add. You could also use completely all-purpose flour if you so wish - I am just used to tossing in some whole wheat pastry to add a bit more nutrition. The dried lavender blossoms added a mild and sweet aromatic fragrance that played off the bright flavor the fresh lemon zest and juice added. You could probably get away with any nuts here, but I rather liked the grassy-green pistachios as we found their delicate flavor and texture melded beautifully with these not-to-sweet cookies.

Recipes
Lavender-Scented Lemon Pistachio Biscotti