Biscotti

One of the things that I don't bake all that well is biscotti. It's pretty easy to make biscotti; even the glamorous versions, studded with nuts and covered with icings, are simple stuff. But the biscotti I have in mind has never come easily to me.

A company called Two Smart Ladies, based in Maine, used to sell the kind of I have in mind -- soft, but not crumbly, with some candied fruits in it. They were expensive, so I didn't get them too often, but I told others about them, and whenever I did get them, I'd always pause for a couple of minutes and look at them, wondering how to make mine come out like that. The next time I made biscotti, I'd try variations -- what if I used less heat; what if I only baked it once (thus, technically, not being 'biscotti' any more). Never made it. And, alas, they went out of business. Bummer. Lost forever.

This Christmas, in addition to the gift of falling down the stairs (and hey, good news: I walked about twenty feet without a crutch today; very slowly, but still, and outpatient therapy starts on Tuesday), I got a selection of Italian Christmas cookies from my mother in law. Okay, technically we got them. But as I was eating them, one, a sort of dense cookie, about the size of a piece of fudge, but with the texture of a cookie - soft, not crumbly, with some candied fruits in it - that one got my attention. So I ate it.

And then I thought: who made that? How did they make it? Is there any more?

I think I need to have words with my mother in law....