Mini Homemade Holiday Biscotti

I am so excited to be a part of all the homemade fun that Rachel, Kelly and Cindy are organizing! I love homemade gifts, but for me they have to be simple, doable and affordable. If I have to go out and get lots of special ingredients or supplies, the likelihood of me getting the gifts made is very low! Today I want to share a homemade holiday gift idea that is something that even I can tackle!

First, allow me to sing the praises of biscotti. Biscotti is a wonderful thing to bake for gifts. There are so many flavor possibilities, which makes it lots of fun, but, more importantly, you can make TONS of biscotti very quickly, which is just the kind of recipe you need when creating gifts. The mini holiday biscotti recipe I am sharing with you today is cute and festive for the holidays, tastes great, and is easy to throw together!

Once you get your mini holiday biscotti made, you need to package those cuties up! I have a simple, cute and inexpensive packaging idea for you that can work for all kinds of treats, not just cute mini biscotti.

All you need are white paper lunch bags (they have them at the grocery store!), a black pen, a red pen, and some red ribbon.

Draw a very simple holiday picture on the front of the bag. Mostly use black for your drawing with red highlights here and there. Finish the drawing off with a simple message.

Fold the top once.

Then lightly fold the top of the bag in half vertically, like so.

Snip a little slit about 1/2 inch horizontally from the top of the bag (which is the fold).

Slip a ribbon through the slot and tie a bow!

Easy, cheap and really cute! Plus, it will have a very personal touch with your own handwriting.

Be sure to place the biscotti into a plastic bag inside the paper bag, both to keep the biscotti fresh and to keep the bag from getting any grease spots from the cookies.

Mini Holiday Biscotti
Slightly adapted from Land O Lakes

***recipe yield: roughly 48 biscotti***
– 1/2 cup butter, softened
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 3 eggs
– 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
– 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
– 1 1/3 cup Nestle’s holiday morsels
– Dark or semi-sweet chocolate for melting and dipping
– Either red/white/green sprinkles or crushed peppermint pieces

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine butter and sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add eggs; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and baking powder; continue beating until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips/holiday morsels.

Divide dough into eight equal size pieces onto a lightly floured surface with lightly floured hands. Shape each piece into a log that is 1 inch wide and 1/2-inch tall. It will be 8 or 9 inches long. The height and width are most important – you do not want the log to be wider than 1 inch. Place logs 3 inches apart onto lightly greased large cookie sheet or cookie sheet lined with a Silpat. I needed two cookie sheets for this recipe.

Bake for 18 minutes or until tops are cracked and ends just start to turn light brown. Remove from oven; reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Cool logs 10 minutes on cookie sheet.

This biscotti is very fragile, so handle with care!

Carefully move log to a cutting board and cut into 1/2-inch wide pieces with a serrated knife at about a 30 degree angle (see photo, also you can click here to see a diagram for different ways to cut biscotti). Place cut pieces back onto the cookie sheet, cut side down. Discard or eat ends (I recommend eating!).

Bake for 6 minutes, take out of the oven and flip every piece, then bake for 7 more minutes. Remove to wire cooling rack; cool completely.

Dip the end of each biscotti into melted chocolate; shake off excess. Place onto waxed paper or back on cooling rack. Immediately sprinkle with sprinkles or peppermint pieces. Let set at room temperature until chocolate is hardened (about 1 hour).

May all your biscotti baking adventures go well! For more biscotti recipes and tips, click here!

Happy Homemade Holidays!

***Jane Maynard is a wife to a scientist surfer dude, mom to the three cutest kids around (her opinion is totally not biased, either), blogger (at her own blog This Week for Dinner as well as Babble) and graphic designer living in San Diego. Probably the most important thing you should know about Jane is that she is addicted to chocolate and believes there is no better food in the world than a homemade chocolate chip cookie 10 minutes out of the oven.**

Read more from Jane at This Week for Dinner, Kitchen Tunage and The Spoiler Alert. For more updates, follow Jane on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!

Thank you so much, Jane!  I think I need a whole plate of these, right NOW!! YUM.

Mini Homemade Holiday Biscotti

Simple and delicious holiday biscotti that you can make at home. These colorful and tasty biscotti make a wonderful holiday gift

Print Recipe

Cook Time:35 minutes mins

Total Time:35 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• Nestle's Holiday Morsels
• Dark or semi-sweet chocolate for melting and dipping
• Either red/white/green sprinkles or crushed peppermint pieces

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350°F.
• Combine butter and sugar in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add eggs; continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and baking powder; continue beating until well mixed.
• Stir in chocolate chips/holiday morsels.
• Divide dough into eight equal size pieces onto a lightly floured surface with lightly floured hands. Shape each piece into a log that is 1 inch wide and 1/2-inch tall. It will be 8 or 9 inches long. The height and width are most important - you do not want the log to be wider than 1 inch.
• Place logs 3 inches apart onto lightly greased large cookie sheet or cookie sheet lined with a Silpat. I needed two cookie sheets for this recipe.
• Bake for 18 minutes or until tops are cracked and ends just start to turn light brown.
• Remove from oven; reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
• Cool logs 10 minutes on cookie sheet.
• This biscotti is very fragile, so handle with care!
• Carefully move log to a cutting board and cut into 1/2-inch wide pieces with a serrated knife at about a 30 degree angle
• Place cut pieces back onto the cookie sheet, cut side down. Discard or eat ends (I recommend eating!).
• Bake for 6 minutes, take out of the oven and flip every piece, then bake for 7 more minutes.
• Remove to wire cooling rack; cool completely.
• Dip the end of each biscotti into melted chocolate; shake off excess.
• Place onto waxed paper or back on cooling rack. Immediately sprinkle with sprinkles or peppermint pieces.
• Let set at room temperature until chocolate is hardened (about 1 hour).

Servings: 48

Author: Rachel - A Southern Fairytale