Easter Treats

I have literally spent all day baking today! My kind of day! I made egg and flower shaped sugar cookies, carrot cake cupcakes, almond & orange zest  biscotti and pistachio & lemon zest biscotti. All for tomorrow and a few extra for Alex's store.

Biscotti is not as hard to make as it may seem...and they happen to be low-fat, really :)  Here is the recipe I use :

2 3/4  cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 tblsp. butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp finely shredded lemon or orange peel (this is optional, but it REALLY gives great flavor so I would say it is a must!)
1 cup coarsely chopped pistachios or almonds

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the bowl and place eggs and egg yolks and mix. Add butter, zest and nuts. Dough will be crumbly.

2. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; divide into three equal portions. Shape each portion into a loaf.




Place on lightly greased or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Flatten loaves slightly. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.

3. Transfer baked loaves onto a cooling rack and let cool about 15 minutes.



Then, move to cutting board and cut WITH A SERRATED KNIFE  slices about 1/2 inch wide.





Place slices on their sides on baking sheet and bake for another 10 minutes.



Turn them over and bake another 5 to 10 minutes.





I drizzed melted white chocolate on the lemon pistachio ones and milk chocolate on the orange almond ones. It just adds a little touch!


I also made some basic sugar cookeis and decorated them with royal icing. They came out lovely!






Finished jars -



*Sorry for the bad picture quality, I cannot find our camera and I have been using my phones for pictures...

Well, I am beat for the day. I am going to relax now and finish watching The Ten Commandments. Hope everyone has a happy and blessed Easter!