Oreo Biscotti – last-minute Christmas gift

Usually as soon as the calendar hits the 1st of December, I start Youtubing Christmas playlists… Who am I kidding, I start doing it mid-November! To be honest, I wasn’t feeling very festive last year, because it was my first Christmas in Thailand. I guess I either miss snow, cold yet sunny Lithuanian winters, or the appalling British weather. Apart from the snowless winter, I am very jolly and I hope you are too. If not – just stick to your 5-a-day (and by that I mean mulled wine!). This post is about oreo biscotti – a cute personal gift, which you can give not just for Christmas!

For our last Christmas in the UK, Auste and I decided to make gifts for our friends and family ourselves, and I have to say it was definitely worth it. We had so much fun looking for crafting materials, recipes and spare boxes from work, and the result did give a magical festive feeling. We made Oreo biscotti as one of the gifts and they turned out excellent. If you follow the recipe, they should come out very moreish. Hence, make more if you’re making these crunchies for both your friends, and yourself to enjoy. Two days later they no longer existed in our place…

So surprise your friends and try the recipe below. If you’re an average Joe, you should really have every ingredient and would only need to buy the Oreos or vanilla extract.

Makes 40+ biscotti

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

2 cups flour

20 Oreo cookies, chopped (trust me, 20 is NOT too much)

Optional decoration:

100g white chocolate

1 tablespoon butter

3 Oreo cookies, cookie part only, finely crushed

Icing sugar (about 3 tablespoons)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 180 C (350 degrees F). Line baking tray with baking paper.

2) Using a fork mix butter, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and baking powder in a bowl until smooth. Beat in eggs.

3) Slowly (to avoid lumps) add flour and mix until smooth, then stir in chopped Oreos.

4) Divide the dough in half, shape into 2 logs on the baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.

5) Remove the biscotti logs from oven and cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 160 C (325 degrees F).

6) When they cool down, slice the logs into 2 cm slices leaving small gaps between them. Bake for an additional 25 mins until golden (or less for softer biscotti). Remove and cool completely.