biscotti-ba-boom

if any of y'all are yarnies, you may know that magic and moonshine (me mainly with a bit of lee and deon thrown in) does a cookies and cake club every year. this year it's inspired by jitterbug perfume by tom robbins.  (shout out to cathy ellsworth, senior humanities teacher who gave me the book and incited by lifelong love for tom robbins.)  the club is called sexy yarns and sinful treats this go-round.

so, the first month--october--was seattle and the beet.  (read the book if you don't get it.  it's totally worth it.)  so, of course, seattle called for chocolate cherry biscotti.  or actually because i go for overkill:  triple chocolate cherry biscotti.  so i know how to make biscotti--probably made several dozen batches of biscotti a week for a couple of years.  it's super easy.  and it's not supposed to look pretty, so it's even easier.  right?

well, sort of.  it would be easy if i wasn't the me who wants to fancy everything up a little bit AND who is a procrastinating perfectionist. i had to get this biscotti made on saturday so that i could get the already late club orders out that afternoon.  i made lee run to the grocery store as soon as he woke up so that the eggs would be room temp by the time i stumbled out of bed.  yay, lee! 

then i realized that i should wait to mail until monday--damn the lateness, fresher biscotti.  i mean who wants their biscotti to sit in the p.o. all weekend.  so, i put off biscotti til sunday.  no problem.  biscotti is easy.  but...the first batch.  i didn't chop up my chocolate well nor did i add enough liquid and i added extra cherries.  so baking the requisite amount of time left me with burnt biscotti.  problem is that with dark chocolate and dutch processed cocoa, it's hard to tell that they are burnt.  but much later, i decided they were--chocolate is weird about burnt--it can almost mask it, especially if it's extra dark chocolate.  but i know that burnt was there.

so, batch number too.  still made the same recipe mistakes.  confession:  i was using ghiradelli bittersweet chips so i didn't bother to chop--even though the chips were big enough to be elf hats.  i was also using rum to soak the cherries, and i didn't want to use rum, so i didn't add that liquid.  also, i was low on vanilla--and that makes me very very sad.  but, in spite of my shortcomings, batch number two was alright.  so, i wanted to make it better.  DIP IT IN CHOCOLATE!!!  well, i had my chocolate warmed and ready to drizzle.  then i thought it would be a great idea to add cold milk--skim.  where was my brain?  guess what.  chocolate seized.  now here is where backing away, admitting defeat, would have been the logical option.  but that isn't what i did.  logic is not the only option.  i added an insane amount of butter to the chocolate and dipped those 'scotti in it.  yep.  i did.  guess what?  it was a ridiculous mess.  kinda like frosting the biscotti with canned chocolate frosting.  crap.  2 a.m.

new plan.  run to the store as soon as i get up monday morning for a stick of butter, a container of milk, and a loaf of bread. or at least, eggs, vanilla, chocolate, cherries.  and some toilet paper.

i did that.  i used port to soak my cherries, and chopped my chocolate.  i made the best damn triple chocolate cherry biscotti.  and then i ate 6 pieces, mailed the rest off, and went back to sleep.