Biscotti

For variety, dip half of the biscotti in melted white chocolate and the other half in dark chocolate. Or, drizzle the melted chocolate over the biscotti instead.

These sweet-crisp cookies can be baked days ahead and, because the recipe is so generous, you can send your guests home with some.

Sue Shadley of Indianapolis, Indiana, says that the biscotti from The Bakehouse in Bloomington are addictive. These can be baked three weeks ahead and frozen, making them an ideal Christmas gift.

A drizzle of white chocolate makes these Italian cookies holiday ready. For what it's worth, it's equally good on a classic almond biscotti, too.

These cookies from the town of Prato are also known as cantucci. They are usually served with the Italian dessert wine Vin Santo.

I have always loved the combination of lemon and pistachios. Maybe it's the idea of yellow and green or the fact that the acidity of lemon perfectly tempers the richness of pistachios. Be careful on the second baking of these biscotti — if they get a little too dark the pistachios will turn brown and you'll lose their lovely green color.

Unlike most commercially available chocolate biscotti, these have a deep chocolaty flavor.

This recipe was created to prepare <epi:recipeLink ="14262">Chocolate Walnut Biscotti with Chocolate Custard Swirls</epi:recipeLink>.

These biscotti are equally delicious made with roasted almonds, pecans, or hazelnuts in place of the cashews.

If you spend one afternoon in the kitchen, there will be cookies for everyone on your list. You'll need at least a four-quart bowl to mix the large amount of dough.

These not-too-sweet cookies are based on an old recipe seldom seen these days. Although the combination of almonds, honey and cinnamon is still a typical one, contemporary Neapolitan biscotti tend to be less aggressively flavored.

(BISCOTTI ALL'ARANCIO E MANDORLE) While all Italian cookies are referred to as biscotti, these are really "biscotti," which means they are baked twice. True biscotti are made in many different flavor combinations in many different parts of the country. These delicate ones come from the region of Lazio, where Rome is located. The secret to the cookies' lightness is not to use too much flour and to freeze the dough before forming it into logs.

For the crispiest cookies, slice the dough no thicker than a half inch. The biscotti keep well and look great wrapped in tinted cellophane tied with a silk ribbon or raffia, or packed into pretty holiday bags.

These biscotti can be baked in different size pans — even free form on a baking sheet — depending on what shape you’d like them to be. We used an 11- by 4-inch pan for a square shape. A 9- by 5- by 3-inch pan yields a long, narrow rectangle. The cooking time will not be affected by the pan you use.

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 2 hr

For a curved tuile-like shape, these cookies may be draped over a rolling pin after their second baking, while they are still warm. If the cookies become too brittle to form on the rolling pin, return baking sheets to oven for a few seconds to allow the cookies to soften.