Cookies - Biscotti

These are pretty similar to Famous Amos. They take margarine which makes them authentic.

From The New Best of BetterBaking.Com cookbook, Whitecap Books 2009 .  Almond scented shortbread, filled with luscious dulce de leche caramel filling. One of a kind gift but save some for yourself! Make your own dulce de leche from the free recipe on this site or find ready-made (if you must). This is about the best cookie in the world and the ideal holiday gift. Make it once-it will become, as it is mine, your trademark. I learned about alphahore cookies in tango class. 13 years of tango later (which one needs to work off the alphahores calories), I am still making these amazing cookies. If you make only one cookie (after oatmeal and Tollhouse) this would be it.

II love spice, love apples, and am long smitten with the rustic, heart-healthy goodness of oats. Put it all together in a luscious biscotti to nibble on and the love affair begins. In Prairie ‘n pioneer days, dried apples were something to rely on in winter baking. In this biscotti, the dried apple is another apple-y dimension. Dried apples are available wherever you find dried fruits such as apricots and cranberries. Plump them first to make them softer and get the full flavor out of them. I sometimes glaze these with an confectioners’ sugar glaze that uses apple cider or apple brandy (Calvabec or Calvados) as the liquid (versus water or milk)

This is just like an apple pie but with the crunch of biscotti. A little apple pie filling makes them exceptional.

Apples and spice – what a winning combination for a refreshing new hamantashen variety. You can use canned apple pie filling (just make the apple pieces smaller by dicing finer –messy but important) or your own apple filling with the recipe here.  Either approach will give you orchard-fresh hamantashen in that cinnamon spice and apple flavour everyone loves.

Apple sauce adds a nice flavor and texture here.

This traditional Czech pastry is one of the very first yeast recipes I ever tried. It is good with any filling but I prefer apricot jam or cherry pie filling. Many recipes for kolache dough exist but it is inevitably variations on a sweet, supple dough, often with sour cream in it. Kolache fillings can also be savory (such as shredded cabbage). This is a round of dough with an indentation. The indentation cradles the fruit filling. Pretty to look at and great with a pot of spice tea. Enjoy.

Some folks swoon for chocolate; I swoon for apricots. This biscotti features Californian dried apricots, or cut up apricot leather (I purchase mine in Middle Easter food shops) and is laced with peach schnapps, apricot liqueur or apricot nectar and orange juice. It is sweet, tart, and pretty enough as a gift. Baking with liqueurs is always interesting and this method of dipping the baked biscotti into juice or wine and then sugar and re-baking, is one I favour. It makes something that is already special, spectacular.

If you prefer, you may substitute raisins for the chocolate and add chopped nuts. If you are not serving these for a Seder supper, I would strongly suggest you use butter. What else could you call such a cookie that tastes like a gourmet chocolate chip cookie and yet, miraculously, is 'ok' to eat at Passover?
This is what gets you through Passover week.....the perfect sweet nosh.