Chocolate, Cherry, Pistachio Biscotti

There are vacations... and then there are Davis family vacations. 😂

Believe it or not, I started this vacation with the best of intentions to "just relax for the week" but somehow I that quickly turned into kayaking at sunset, salsa dancing after dark, logging miles of speed walking before 8 am, eating enough ice cream to qualify for dairy sponsorship and participating in frozen T-shirts competitions like there were gold medals at stake.🥇  ​That pretty much sums up my "relaxing" week at my parents little island home on Lake Erie last month.

I love our trips to Lake Erie.  Afternoons become a blur of boating, water skiing, swimming and enthusiastic attempts to prove that adults can still do everything they did twenty-five years ago.  Spoiler alert: We cannot.🤣

​We had such a fun week on this little island paradise in the middle of the Sandusky Bay but what was even better than our crazy summer adventures was the time that we all got to spend together.  I'm so grateful for the memories that I was able to make with family and friends that week. 

Lake Erie is where I grew up and it's a blessing to be able to go back and spend time with my family every year in this special place.  We have our traditions when we visit like stopping by the Dairy Dock as often as possible.  Homemade biscotti has also become a tradition when I visit. My parents absolutely love it. Perhaps it's because biscotti is meant to be savored slowly—just like time together.

Sometimes I arrive with a giant bag filled to the top with all different types of biscotti and other times I take over my parents kitchen for an afternoon and I have a British baking show style biscotti baking day.👩🏻‍🍳  Either way, I don't feel like I can leave until I know that they have enough biscotti to fill their freezer until my next visit.😉  

Twice-baked until perfectly crisp, biscotti is ideal alongside a steaming cup of morning coffee while watching sailboats drift across the lake or sharing conversation on the porch.  The best vacations aren't necessarily the quietest.  They're the ones where the days are full, the laughter is loud, the competition is questionable, the dancing is fearless and the people around the table adore a simple biscotti because it's the sweetest tradition of all.

Chocolate, Cherry, Pistachio Biscotti
4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon baking powder
6 eggs
1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups dried cherries
1 cup pistachios
2 Tablespoons cocoa nibs
​1/4 cup strong espresso

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and cocoa powder in bowl of standing mixer.  

Beat in eggs and vanilla.  

Add cherries, pistachios and cocoa nibs. 

Add enough espresso to form a dough. 

Dump dough onto counter and form into a loaf.  Divide into 4 pieces.  

Shape each piece into a long log.  

Bake 25 minutes at 350.  

Slice diagonally into 1/2" slices. 

Arrange on baking sheets.  Bake 10 minutes. Flip and bake another 10 minutes. 

Ciao!

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