Every morning I’m working at hospice, I ask Grandma Cookie to join me. My dad’s mom who arrived from Sicily and settled in the Bronx, gives me the strength from within to make cookies from her childhood. Every weekend I make a variety of biscotti. Biscotti means “twice baked”. Mine are known as a soft biscotti so that the patients can enjoy them. Traditionally they are quite hard so they can hold up to the dip in espresso.
This picture is a “brick” of orange chocolate chip with raisins. They are cut at a soft angle which gives biscotti it’s signature shape. The trick to keeping the shape is to freeze your rolled cookie dough for about 2 hours before you bake it.
Once baked, the cookies cool. The kitchen smells wonderful and a small gathering begins around the coffee.