Fall Inspired Morning Tablescape & Pumpkin Biscotti Recipe

I hope everyone is off to a great fall weekend!  Well I had such a wonderful morning and afternoon with my friend girl.  She came over this morning for coffee and girltalk.  She was so gracious enough to be my tester of my first attempt at pumpkin biscotti :).   The funny thing was that she gave me some wonderful pumpkin muffins she had made from a pinterest recipe she just tried.  So we were each others taste testers this morning.  I must say her muffins out did my biscotti.  They were FABULOUS!   I was so happy with how the biscotti turned out along with my tablescape this morning. I wanted a casual fall tablescape that felt cozy and pumpkin inspired.

Here is my pumpkin biscotti!   I got the recipe from mybakingaddiction.com.  So easy to make and very tasty.  A great compliment to your fall coffee.  Here is the recipe:

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 1/4 cu nuts, coarsly chopped
White chocolate morsals (OPTIONAL)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2.  Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl; stir well.  In another bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs and vanilla, stirring well with a wire whisk.  Slowly add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. (Mixture will be very crumbly; it will gradually become moist after stirring.

3. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add nuts.  Cook, stirring constantly, until nuts are browned.  Remove from heat and cool completely.

4.  Knead or gently stir cooled nuts into dough.  Place dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into 2 portions.  Lightly flour hands and shape each portion into a 2 x 10″ long log.  Place logs 3″ apart on lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 24 minutes; cool logs 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

5.  After some cooling, move a loaf to a cutting board and cut diagonally into 1/2″ thick pieces.  Do the same to the other loaf.  The interior of each biscotti should still be just a little moist (while the exterior is nice and hard).  The crust of the loaf will probably be quite hard, so use a large serrated knife such as a bread knife for this job.

6.  Place the biscotti with a cut side facing up on a half sheet pan and bake for 8 minutes.  Remove the pan and flip all the biscotti over os the other cut side is now facing up.  Bake for another 7 minutes.  Set all the pieces on a wire rack to cool making sure that none of the biscotti are touching each other.  If the biscotti are placed too close together, they could get a little soft or soggy as the cool.

7.  Once the biscotti have fully cooled, they can be consumed as is, or white chocolate dipped or drizzled.

The biscotti tastes best during the first few days.  but will keep for up to a month in a sealed air-tight container.

Recipe compliments of:  http://www.mybakingaddiction.com

I also made a batch of biscotti for my friend girl to take home and enjoy.  I used a simple silver platter (which you can get for $1.00 at your local dollar store or party planning store.  I simply tied a orange ribbon and add some fall picks.