Cinnamon Red Hot Biscotti
When I gifted a very large bag of cinnamon Red Hots- thanks, Laurie – I wanted to come up with some way to use them. I have been making a lot of biscotti lately, so biscotti seemed like a natural way to go. I used a recipe I already had, but tweaked it a bit. I liked the end result. I might even add more cinnamon the next time. I left them plain, but I could see dressing them up with a drizzle of a cinnamon glaze or maybe white chocolate. So here is the recipe.
Cinnamon Red Hot Biscotti
6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 t. salt
1 T. vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup crushed Red Hots cinnamon candies – I used a food processor to crush them.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 2 (9×5) loaf pans. Set aside. In a medium bowl, cream the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, baking powder and cinnamon. Beat in the eggs. The batter may look lumpy. Mix in the flour until just combined. Add the crushed Red Hots. Stir just until the dough is pink and speckled with candy pieces. Divide the dough between the two loaf pans, smoothing the tops as best you can. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, and cool in the pans about 5-10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 325°F. Remove loaves from the pans. With a serrated knife, cut the log crosswise into ½” – ¾” slices. Get a baking sheet and place a cooling rack on the baking sheet. Place the slices on their sides on the cooling rack. They will bake on both sides at once, no need to turn them hallway through. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until dry and beginning to turn golden around the edges. Remove the biscotti from the oven, and allow them to cool right on the rack. Makes 2-2½ dozen.
