The perfect holiday treat

Adele Dienno returned to the Italian cooking series with her famous biscotti.

Adele getting up close and personal with the biscotti dough.

Now, I'm not a huge baker, so maybe this is obvious to others, but it wasn't to me. What makes Adele's biscotti turn out fabulous every time is that she mixes the dough on the countertop and kneads it - like bread, or biscuits. That way, she can tell just how moist the dough is and really incorporate all the yummy ingredients - like chocolate, toasted hazelnuts, and dried cherries.

She has another trick, too, which is that she substitutes about 25% spelt flour in the recipe (available in Bulk). Spelt has a delicious nutty taste, which complements cookies with nuts, and it's whole grain (although sadly, not gluten-free, since it's an older variety of wheat). What earns spelt a place in my flour bin is that its protein content is somewhere in the middle between whole wheat bread flour and whole wheat pastry flour - in other words, it can either help form gluten in bread dough or maintain a lighter consistency in baked goods, depending on what else you combine it with.

Here are a few photos from the biscotti process. Now, I'm going to have to be honest: when the biscotti logs came out of the oven, there was so much excitement I forgot to bring the camera over. Let's just say that biscotti were being sliced, ends were being eaten, and everyone was very, very happy.

But yes, the logs are not the end of the process. They are sliced on the diagonal with a sharp knife and then the slices are baked a second time.

Here's a link to the recipe on our website.

Kneading the dough...

Adding the chocolate and nuts...

Incorporating the ingredients...

Kneading again...

After the logs are placed on the baking tray, they are flattened so the biscotti dough bakes evenly.

Demonstrating the all-important "spring test" -- touch the center of a log lightly with your finger. If the dough springs back, it's done. If it leaves an indentation or imprint of your finger, put it back in the oven for a couple of minutes.