Orange Scented Biscotti with a Chocolate Drizzle

Happy Thursday everyone!  I hope your week is moving right along an you're looking forward to a nice weekend.  I myself am kicking it off a little early tonight with a small gathering of lovely ladies at our recently renovated hacienda.  Our bathroom is done (yay!) and to celebrate I'm hosting a Lia Sophia Jewelry party which is a perfect excuse to have people over, share some wine and appetizers, and bake some cookies.

I decided on some biscotti that mimic one of my favorite flavor combinations: Orange and Dark Chocolate.  I used my anise biscotti recipe and tweaked it a bit for the effect.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange extract
zest of 1 orange
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
dash salt
Melted chocolate mixed with 2 tablespoons shortening

 Mix your butter and sugar, then add in the eggs one at a time.  Add the extracts and zest.  The slowly mix in all the dry ingredients until the dough comes together.  Form into two, 11 inch logs....

Then bake at 300 for about 30 minutes.  Allow the logs to cool completely.  In the meantime, I mopped.

Slice.  And bake again, pumping up the temp to 325 for 9 minutes.  Flip and repeat.

Ah.  A nice golden brown.  While these cooled off, I quickly melted some baker's semi sweet chocolate with a little bit of shortening to make it more liquidy.

I decided this wasn't exactly liquid enough to drizzle with a whisk, so (with the assistance of the hubby) I transferred it into a large ziplock for some impromptu piping.

Tada.  I'm pretty happy with these.  I do wish they were a little bit more "Orangey".  Perhaps next time I will up the zest.  Or even add a little extract to the melted chocolate.  They are definitely pretty though!  Looking forward to sharing them tonight with my ladies :)

Happy Baking!