One of  the great  joys of  life is to sit back after a long day with a cup of tea, a good book and a yummy biscotti to dunk in your tea..

Crunchy, light, full of flavour…whether they are  marbled with chocolate chip… studded with pistachios …or spickled with dates and walnuts

I’m always tempted to tryout new combinations of flavour…orange zest with honey and pistachios… sesame seeds with anise … cinnamon with oatmeal..and the list goes on and on…

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes…You can call it biscotti with mediterranean flavours… the honey and sesame seeds give the top amazing taste, color and texture. The spice combination adds up to a biscotti like nothing  you ever had

The recipe is my mother’s cusine and she is a talanted baker. Any visit to her house is a joy to the taste buds 🙂

Honey sesame biscotti

3 cups  flour 

1 cup  sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

3 teaspoons sesame seed

2 teaspoons  anise seeds

2 teaspoons ground anise

2 teaspoons black sesame seeds (optional)

2 teaspoons ground fennel seeds

2 teaspoons backing powder

honey

sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

beat the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together.

add the spices and mix

sift the flour and backing powder then  add it to the wet  ingredients and mix untill incorporated.

you will get a sticky dough, resist the temptation to add any more flour

wet your hands with water and transfer the dough to a greased backing sheet.

you can shape it into a log (which is the original way to do it) or spread it out with your wet hands as I did here

spread a couple of tablespoons of honey on the top. This will do 3 things: give flavour , act as glue to stick the sesame seeds and give the top great color

sprinkle the top with sesame seeds

 

bake in a preheated oven (350) for 30 minutes or untill cake tester comes out clean

let cool completely

cut it with a serrated knife and place them on the side on a backing sheet

heat the oven and put them back into the oven from 5-15 minutes depending on how crunchy you like them… the longer you bake them the second time , the crunchier they become