Biscotti bits

When David and I were in Italy in September (He riding his bike - me cooking with Chicca), one of the recipes that we made was biscotti.  I have always loved biscotti, and have tried many recipes throughout the years - generally without a lot of success.  Chicca's recipe was great - and I've made it a couple of times since we got home.

I decided that I would make some biscotti along with all of my other Christmas cookie recipes this year, since David especially liked them.  So a couple of weeks ago (I like to bake and freeze when possible so I have all of my 'chores' done and can enjoy the holidays) I made 7 or 8 different kinds of cookies, including Chicca's Italian Biscotti.

Now, these cookies are great, but some of the pieces get a bit crumbly.  You know how biscotti works - you bake the cookies in a sort of loaf, then slice them and bake again to make them crunchy.  This recipe has lots and lots and lots of toasted almonds in it (which is probably one of the reasons David likes them so much) and so when one is slicing for the second baking, one tends to get a few pieces that don't hold together so well.  These pieces are great for snacking, but maybe not so lovely for a special Christmas plate.
That's part one of my story.

Part Two:  One of Emma's favorite Christmas cookies involves smashing up Oreo's, mixing them with cream cheese, rolling them in small balls, then dipping them in chocolate coating.  Since I used to be a cook in a deli, I don't really feel like I'm baking unless I'm making 5 or 6 things at once.  (Why turn the oven on for just one thing right? :)  )  Therefore, the same day that I was making biscotti, I was also making Emma's favorite cookies.  We call them mudballs.  Not very 'Christmasy' is it?  The original recipe had you dipping them in white chocolate -and they had peppermint candies crushed in them, and were called snowballs, but we like them better in chocolate - hence - mudballs.

One of the things I dislike about making them is that if you have enough to dip the balls in, you have chocolate left over(since the bowl has to have chocolate deep enough to roll them around).  Generally I just cool it down and re-use it later - but sometimes later can be a long time away.

A light bulb then went off in my head.  Earlier this year, around Halloween, I tried a recipe from the Pioneer Woman blog which involved chocolate coating and Reese's pieces, pretzels, pistachios, etc.

Can you see where this is going?   If you can't - I'm going to tell you - one of the most fabulous, tasty and delicious 'accidents' which has ever occurred!!

I crunched up the boken bits of biscotti a bit more, added some broken bits of palmiers that didn't turn out perfectly, put them on a cookie sheet, and poured the rest of the chocolate coating over them.   After it cooled I broke the slab into pieces, and put them in a container in the freezer - Where I have been taking them out bit by bit ever since and eating them!   (Sorry honey - you've been gone)

I decided today I'd better take them out so that David gets a few before they are completely gone.  I'm afraid none of these are going to make it onto the cookie trays that I bring to holiday gatherings.  Good I have lots of other things to put on them.  I'll write about them later this week when I get them ready.