A lot of people ask me where I learned to bake, and why I love to bake so much. My mom doesn't like to bake, neither does my grandma and for sure none of the men in my family bake! However, my great-grandma lived next door to me for the first 16 years of my life, and yes she was a baker (just for fun though). I remember making pizelle cookies with her (these flat, wonderful, waffle type Italian cookies). I grew up with my great-grandma, I blame her for my love of coffee and tea- because every morning and afternoon I would go over there and have coffee and Stell D'Oro biscotti, or tea and of course a biscotti.
To this day, one of my favorite things is having one cookie (preferably a biscotti) with my cup of coffee. But, the best memory now aside from thinking back to sitting outside in the summer with my grandma having tea and coffee is sorting through all of her cookie recipes and bringing back all of those great memories through the taste of her cookies. I found her old biscotti recipe and they beat any cookie I have ever had from any bakery. It takes a lot of time, patience, and love to get the cookies just right- but at the end, they are definitely worth it! Biscotti in Italian means twice baked, so that is why it takes a little extra patience, after some practice - it just becomes second nature on how to make them just right. I think it's time I bring that recipe back up and bake some biscotti this week or next...yummy!
Bake on!