holiday biscotti

these holiday biscotti are a simple riff on my favorite - i added dried cherries and white chocolate chips to my favorite pistachio biscotti to get all the holiday colors in one cookie. it's the same combination  i used last year to make killer holiday shortbread cookies. biscotti are the perfect cookie: insanely easy to make, pretty difficult to screw up, and they're just fancy enough that people are impressed you can make them from scratch.

not feeling the pistachio, white chocolate, and dried fruit blend? how about one of these -
dark chocolate and almond biscotti
cinnamon sugar biscotti
chai biscotti

holiday biscotti
adapted from tyler florence's pistachio biscotti

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups shelled pistachios
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries or cherries

1. using a mixer, beat the butter until it's light and fluffy. turn the mixture down to low and gradually add the sugar and vanilla. add the eggs one at a time.
2. add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until smooth.
3. mix in the pistachios, white chocolate, and cranberries/cherries.
4. divide the dough roughly in half. roll each piece of dough into a tube, roughly the size of your rolling pin. move the dough to a parchment lined sheet pan. use your hands to flatten the dough - so instead of a long, circular tube, you have an almost rectangular sheet. repeat with the other piece of dough.
5. bake at 350F for 35 minutes or until lightly browned.
6. let cool on the sheets for 10-15 minutes. keep the oven on.
7. slide one of the dough logs onto a cutting board. using a serrated knife, slice the log into 1/2 to 1 inch thick slices. the thickness of your slices will determine how wide your cookies are.
8. place the slices cut side down on the baking sheets, bake 5 minutes, flip them (so the down side is up and the up side is down) and bake an additional 5 minutes.
9. cool on a cooling rack. store in an airtight container and dunk in your morning coffee.