ABC - Orange, Date & Almond Biscotti

I love biscotti and lucky for us, so does Christina Marsigliese. Her blog, Scientifically Sweet, contains many biscotti recipes. The one that caught my eye immediately was the Orange, Date & Almond Biscotti, probably because my favorite biscotti is one that a close friend shared with me, many years ago. It's a Cranberry, Almond and Anise Seed biscotti.

Delicious cup-a-tea with a biscotti. Notice the scalloped top. I explain later how I did that :o)

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This recipe came together very easily. For convenience, I used my KitchenAid to make the dough.

The dry ingredients plus my addition of golden flax seeds to make them health-IER :o)

Fairly sticky dough. Dry dough could cause crumbling later after baking.

With oiled hands and work surface, I rolled it into a ball and cut it in half.

Formed 3" wide logs, about 10" long instead of 12" because I like my biscotti to have some height.

Brush with egg wash. Then, for a scalloped top, run a fork over the top of the log.

After an 18 min bake in the oven, I took them and let them cool for 20 min or so.

Slicing was a breeze as long as you use a sharp knife. No crumbling.

Ready for the second bake.

Ta-da! Bon Appetit! :o)

Final thoughts/tips:

• Hubby liked the flavor of this biscotti a lot. He said that he preferred my "regular" biscotti over this one because of the texture. He thought this one was a bit more crunchy. Still he gave this one an 8 out of 10 rating.
• I liked the biscotti too. Skipping the almond extract made the orange flavor come through really well which I liked. Leaving the almonds whole was great from a texture perspective as well as labor perspective! My pre-chopped dates (they come in a paper canister) were a bit hard so I put them in some boiling water for 5 min and then squeeze them in a paper towel. To be on the safe side, I used only half the amount and compensated with cranberries, just in case. From a texture perspective they were just a tinge harder than my normal biscotti. 
• Cutting the biscotti was no issue at all. They didn't crumble. I like my biscotti to be about 1/2" (1cm) wide and so I ended up with 30-33 pieces, including the 4 end caps.
• My changes:
• Used half butter (28 gr), half oil (28 gr).
• Skipped the almond extract.
• Added 1 tbsp golden flax seeds.
• Used half dates (42 gr) and half  cranberries (42 gr).
• Two large eggs weigh 100 gr. Since I was using XL eggs, I weighed the eggs and used the leftover for the egg wash without needing to break another egg :)
• Biscotti decoration/scalloped top: once you brush the top of the logs with egg wash, take a fork and run it over the top as straight as you can.
• The recipe can be found HERE.
• Don't forget to check out the Biscotti post of other ABC bakers.