This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays selection is Sour Cherry Almond Biscotti. It has been well-documented on this blog that Josh consumes the majority of the treats I make, but I am actually the bigger cookie monster when it comes to biscotti - I love it. I’ve made a few different biscotti recipes and the one issue they all seem to have in common is that the dough is sticky to work with. This recipe called for chilling the dough for at least an hour before baking, which helped, but I still had to use a generous amount of flour when shaping the dough into logs before baking. I had a surplus of pistachios leftover from when the Sweet Melissa group made the Pistachio Linzer Thumbprints last month, so I subbed them for the almonds in the recipe (still used the almond extract, though), since pistachios tend to be more difficult to find uses for. 
The cookies are nice and crunchy and I love the addition of dried cherries, so yummy. Josh tried one tonight and assured me that he will snack on them this week. (I just better not make any competing snacky treats for a few days. I’ve learned my lesson not to do that when it’s something he isn’t super-crazy about.) A nice lady from our HOA saw Josh and Eloise out for a walk and informed Josh that there is another family with a Weimaraner who recently moved into our neighborhood, so we are going to welcome them with some biscotti.
This recipe received an 8 for Deliciousness and a 3 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.66. Many thanks to Tracey of Made by Tray-Tray for a great selection. You can find the recipe here on Tracey’s site and visit the Sweet Melissa site to see what the rest of the group thought of this selection.
I love the pretty green color the pistachios lent to the finished cookies. Great job!
ReplyDeleteMargot, your biscotti look great. Nice sub with the pistachios...I think this base recipe could be used with tons of nut and fruit combos. Lucky neighbor you have! Adorable package with dog bones on it. ;)
ReplyDeleteI imagine these were delicious with pistachios. Beautiful package for your neighbors.
ReplyDeleteYum! I bet these were quite yummy with the pistachios! Good idea to sub those since you had them!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed them! Pistachios would be a delicious addition. I'll have to try that next time!
ReplyDeleteHow sweet of you to welcome your fellow doggy lover with some homebaked treats! I want to have a weimariner one day, they are such lovely beautiful smart doggies.
ReplyDeleteGreat looking biscotti!
How nice of you to share the biscotti with your new neighbors Margot! I always want to share treats with my new neighbors but I end up chickening out at the last minute...
ReplyDeleteYour biscotti look great! I love the color from the pistachios and the cherries. I wound up giving the rest of my pistachios away to my mom after we made the SMS treat since, like you said, it's harder to find uses for them.
You're such a good neighbor to share! These biscotti look much better (less browned!) than mine, which were really really brown. I almost used macadamias for the same reason that made you choose pistachios.
ReplyDeletea good treat to welcome some new neighbors! glad you got to make some of your favorite treats too
ReplyDeleteYour biscotti look beautiful. Cherry and pistachio sounds like a delicious combination. Biscotti is one of those things that after you've made them you realize why they charge so much for them in stores.
ReplyDeleteThe pistachios give them that red-green look that sounds like they'd be perfect for the holidays! I bet your new neighbors appreciated the treats!
ReplyDeleteI love the green color in your biscotti from the pistachios. Great sub! The biscotti look very pretty with the red and the green. I'm glad you liked these. Also, very nice of you to share with your new neighbors :o)
ReplyDeleteThese look delicious - gotta love cherries and almonds.
ReplyDeleteYour neighbors are lucky they have a dog! Biscotti are one of my favorite afternoon indulgences and the pistachio and cherries looks look so pretty in these.
ReplyDeleteMimi
Pistachios are a fantastic idea! I would love to be welcomed to the neighorhood with a package of these.
ReplyDeleteYour biscotti look wonderful, and so cute packed up in the gift container. Pistachios are so good - I've made Martha Stewart's chocolate pistachio biscotti and it's delicious.
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