the 34 cookies of Christmas: day 12

Our twelfth cookie of this holiday season is a brown-sugar based biscotti. Biscotti, in Italian, means "twice cooked," which is how these cookies are made. First, the dough-- a mixture of butter, sugars, flour, vanilla, toasted pine nuts, and salted pistachios-- is mixed and shaped into logs which are baked. Once cooled, the logs are sliced, and then baked again... thus, "twice cooked." After the second baking, the cookies are crispy and dry, perfect for dipping in coffee. We finish our pine nut and pistachio biscotti with a light drizzling of Belgian white chocolate, which adds just a touch of sweet creaminess to the biscuits.