Best Biscotti Ever

Who among us hasn't wanted to make biscotti for years but just never got around to it? Well we finally made some and they are GREAT. We got the recipe from some magazine but altered it quite a bit to make it our own. Here's the recipe followed by pics of the process:

Best Biscotti Ever:

- 1.5 C white flower
- 1/2 C wheat flower
- 1/3 C each of flax meal, wheat bran and wheat germ
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1.5 C sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 C butter
- 3 eggs
- 3 tsp. anise seed
- 3 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 C sunflower seeds, toasted
- 1/2 C dried cherries cut into small pieces

Directions:
-preheat oven to 325 degrees F
1) Mix dry ingredients and set aside
2) Cream together butter and sugar then add beaten eggs and vanilla, mixing each in.
3) Add dry ingredients gradually to wet ingredients, mixing well.
4) Shape into 2 oblong loaves and place on greased baking sheets and cook for 25 minutes
5) Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes.
6) With serrated knife, cut loaves into diagonal slices about 1/2 inch wide
7) Place slices on their sides and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until lightly brown.
8) Remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack

Here's the dry ingredients (grainy and healthy looking eh?!):


Mixing the butter and sugar (this mix should end up "fluffy"):


Adding the anise seed and vanilla to sugar/egg/butter mixture:


Adding in the seeds and cherries (cutting the cherries into tiny pieces is critical - I used some kitchen scissors):

The "loaves" before going into oven:

The "loaves" after first 25 minutes of baking:

Cutting the loaves into the diagonal slices:

Laying the slices on their side:

Here they are after the additional baking time. They certainly don't look perfect but...

...They taste delicious! Seriously, these are the best biscotti we've ever had. Probably due to the complex mix of grains as well as the cherry/vanilla/sunflower seed/anise seed mix.