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           If Nonna isn’t baking, buy these!   May 2005 |  | La BiscotteriaBiscotti & Biscottini   We love biscotti, but don’t often have time to bake our own. They’re more time-consuming than a drop cookie like chocolate chip. As “twice-baked” cookies, they require an evenly-shaped loaf to be baked and sliced into the individual cookies, which are baked again to achieve their famed crunchiness.  Most of the commercially-available biscotti fall way short of our own in taste and quality, so we have spent long periods in biscotti deprivation. That’s why we were so happy to find La Biscotteria, a San Francisco-area bakery that makes old-fashioned biscotti with some new twists, that we’ll happily substitute for our own.  We also  that in addition to the standard 5" café-size biscotti, La Biscotteria makes a 3" biscottini for snacking, coffee, and dessert accents.  La Biscotteria uses great recipes—the anise and lemon were brought to America from Naples by the founder’s grandmother—and  premium ingredients. All flavors are made with whole California almonds, sweet cream butter, fresh whole eggs, pure cane sugar, pure essential oils and Madagascar vanilla. Schokinag, one of the world’s finest baking chocolates, imported from Germany, is used for the icings.
 Each flavor deserves your consideration:  
   Anise Biscotti and Biscottini, almond dough lightly seasoned with anise (the classic biscotti recipe) Dark Chocolate Anise Biscotti and Biscottini, the classic with an icing of rich chocolate Lemon Biscotti and Biscottini,  with pure essential oil of lemonOrange Biscottini, with pure essential oil of orangeWhite Chocolate Lemon Biscotti and Biscottini, with an icing of lemony white chocolate (our personal favorite) Dark Orange Chocolate Biscotti, with an icing of orange-infused dark chocolate Raisin Biscotti and Biscottini, especially popular as a complement to fine wines  The 3" biscottini are large enough for full enjoyment of the treat, yet small enough so you don’t feel as if you’re over-indulging.  They snuggle perfectly against a coffee cup or gelato dish, and slip easily  onto an assorted desert plate.  The 5" biscotti are available in gift boxes. The biscottini are available in bags only, but you can put them in a decorative tin for serious gift-giving.  For a more casual gift, put the biscotti bag in small, festive gift bag with tissue paper and; the recipient will think the packaging is just perfect.  
    
      | LA BISCOTTERIA™ Anise, Dark Chocolate Anise*, White Chocolate Lemon*, Dark Chocolate Orange*, Raisin  
            Biscotti Gift Boxeight 5" cookies
 $6.95 plain flavors
 $7.95 iced flavors*
Biscottini 30-40 3" cookies
 $9.95 plain flavors
 $11.95 iced flavors*
 Purchase online at LaBiscotteria.com.
 
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 |  Shipping additional. Prices and flavor availability are verified at publication but are subject to change.  
    
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