Pear Walnut Rooibos Biscotti

Ingredients

• 4 tea bags of The Republic of Tea’s Dream by the Fire tea
• 2 ¼  cups flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbsp whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup dried pears, roughly chopped
• ½ cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

How to Make

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Tear open the tea bags to remove the tea and place in a bowl with flour, baking powder and salt.  Whisk these ingredients together.  Cut in butter and sugar until the texture of the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
3. Combine the eggs, milk and vanilla.  Add to the butter mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together – do not over mix. Remove dough from bowl and knead in the pears and walnuts until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
4. Divide the dough in half and shape into 2 flat logs, about 10” long and 1 ½” high.  Place them on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden.
5. Remove the two logs from the oven and let cool for 2-3 minutes.  Place on a cutting board. With a serrated knife, cut the logs into slices approximately ½” thick.  Place the biscotti slices back onto the parchment-covered baking sheet and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the edges turn golden.
6. Remove from oven and let cool.  Serve with your favorite holiday tea.