Lemon-poppy seed Biscotti

It was my bosses birthday last week and in addition to decorating the entire hallway from the elevator to her office with black balloons, we decided to have a surprise birthday brunch at our morning meeting.  Our group tends to excel at the pot-luck, so I knew there would be way too much food.  I am in no way complaining about the monsterous amount of food, just pointing it out as reasoning behind my decision to make something small and snackable that would keep well for a day or two (so we could spread the gluttony out).

It's Biscotti time.

After much deliberation, I settled on biscotti. We have a fair number of coffee and tea drinkers in the group, so I knew it would be enjoyed.  Having never made biscotti, I didn’t know what I was in for and actually expected it to be much more difficult than it was, but it’s really not that hard!

Ready to make friends with a cup of tea.

I started with a basic biscotti and added lemon zest and poppy seeds.  Once the dough was well mixed and I was happy with my zest to poppy ratio, I spread it into a loaf shape on a cooking sheet for its first round of baking.

Lemon-poppy biscotti loaf.

I removed the dough once it was a light golden brown, sliced it on the diagonal, and returned it to the oven for its final tanning.  I did decide to flip over the biscotti spears midway through the second baking in order to achieve a more consistent browning.  To finish them off, I dipped an end of each spear into melted white chocolate seasoned with a little lemon zest and then topped them with a few poppy seeds.

Lightly zested and ready to celebrate.

Overall, I am over joyed with how the biscotti came out!  They had just the right amount of sweetness and weren’t too hard.  The recipe was simple to execute and easy to manipulate for whatever flavor you might dream up.  I can’t wait to make them again!

Lemon-Poppy seed Biscotti

1/2 stick of butter

6 tbsp sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2 tsp lemon zest+ extra for chocolate dip

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 tsp poppy seeds+extra for decoration

White chocolate

Heavy cream

Stir together flour, baking powder, and poppy seeds and set aside. Beat butter, sugar, zest, and salt. Add in the egg. Add in the flour mixture until fully combined.   Form the dough into a 3 inch wide loaf on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes@350° F until light golden brown. Transfer loaf to a cooling rack until it can be handled. Cut loaf into 3/4 inch wide strips on the diagonal. Lay spears on their side and bake for another 15 minutes, flipping half way through.  While spears are cooling, prep white chocolate dip.  Melt white chocolate in a double boiler, thinning out as needed with heavy cream.  Add in lemon zest as desired.  Dip one end of each spear into melted chocolate and let cool on parchment paper.  Sprinkle with poppy seeds as desired.  Makes about 1 dozen.

Enjoy!