Because I often give food gifts, I'm always looking for some fresh recipes and packaging about this time every year. Biscotti is nothing new, but this year I thought I'd dip it into white chocolate and sprinkle crushed candy canes on top; it was definitely a hit with my son! With the pretty red and white of the candy canes, I wanted to include one non-traditional color-twist that keeps catching my eye, a soft blue like PTI's new Spring Rain. I knew that the PaperTrey Ink Men of Life papers would be the perfect color scheme for holiday-style, if I could just get around the cute anchors. . .
So, did you know that you can get almost four rows of dots if you trim right under one row of anchors and then right over the next row? Several of the papers in the Men of Life Collection will work seasonally, actually. I started with a medium clear paint can and made a little strip to run around the can. (I had to piece some the papers inconspicuously in order to make it all the way around.) I made an upper band as well, but kept much of the container clear so that you could see the pretty biscotti inside. The can body is finished with one of the tags from 2008 Holiday Tags set--one of my new favorite little sets.
For the lid, I used Spellbinders Plain and Petite Scalloped Circle dies to cut pieces for the lid, and a large Sizzix Snowflake die to cut a large white felt snowflake to drape down over the lid. The big red button is an Autumn Leaves Foof-a-La button, and the ribbon is PaperTrey Ink's Spring Rain grosgrain. Little red rhinestones are the A Muse Micro Dot Twinkle Stickers.
For the coordinating card (pictured at the top of the post), I used the same papers but a different tag stamp from the 2008 Holiday Tags set. I used a Fiskars Threading Water punch to scallop the red mat layer and pierced holes in the top and bottom to add some interest. For the envelope, I used another strip of the polka dots, edged with a red paint pen (Elmer's Painters). I wanted to keep that strip as thin as possible so that it wouldn't cause grief in a sorting machine.
Finally, the biscotti: I am still experimenting with different Biscotti recipes. For this batch, I used the Snickerdoodle Biscotti recipe by Cookbook Carrie, low fat and traditional. (My son said that they needed some almond extract. He has opinions on everything.) If I hadn't wanted plain biscotti so that I could keep my color scheme light and airy, I thought that these two recipes sounded pretty amazing: Cinnamon Mocha Biscotti and Double Chocolate Chunk Biscotti. They're on my list to try soon.
After they cooled, I simply dipped one end into melted Almond Bark and then immediately sprinkled crushed candy canes on top. These are quite good dipped into coffee, hot chocolate, or mocha.
I love the fresh color scheme of the Men of Life papers, and I'm sure that I'll be using them much more in the future! Thanks for visiting.
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Edited to add: When I visited the PaperTrey site and tried to add a medium paint can to my cart, it wasn't adding. Both the larger and smaller cans are adding to the cart just fine though. You can use a larger can or a smaller can, but make sure that whatever size you choose, you shape the width of your biscotti dough roll to fit. A larger can would work better for normal-length biscotti, but you could shape your dough rolls to be narrower, and make a few fit into a smaller can as well. HTH!
