Baked with Love

Lucy Davidov ‘20, Staff Writer

As we approach the Christmas season, Marymount sailors are looking forward to the treats that come along with holiday celebrations. Annette Scothon, mother of Gabriella Scothon (‘20), spoke to me about her career as a chef as we made chocolate biscotti. 

Mrs. Scothon adopted her love for baking from her grandparents. Her grandmother’s house had a vegetable garden in the backyard, and she cooked for the nuns every week. Mrs. Scothon would bake a variety of Italian cookies with her grandmother, introducing her to Italian food. 

Mrs. Scothon doesn’t bake desserts much because once she starts, she will eat the whole thing. But she bakes biscotti because it is easy and loved by her husband and daughter Gabby. She has made these cookies her whole life, but found a recipe in 2004 from Epicurious that she has modified over the years to make them softer, unlike the traditional hard biscotti that need to be dunked. She uses extra butter and cooks them for less time. She makes the biscotti in many flavors such as chocolate, vanilla bean, chocolate orange, banana, lemon, and cranberry vanilla, which are red and white for Christmas.

In Itallian, biscotti literally means baked twice. So after baking the block of dough, it is taken out, sliced into cookies, and then baked for a few more minutes. Her secret ingredient is love. She enjoys watching people enjoy her treats the most.