Dessert Now Being Served at the Farmers’ Market

Although Maria Lange started her business, Maria’s Biscotti, just four years ago, she has been making biscotti “for a very long time.” Ever since she was a young girl watching her mother bake in the kitchen, actually.

As a kid, Lange doesn’t remember a week going by without her mother baking for family and friends. With all the work that went into it, Lange’s mother recruited her to be an assistant. Back then, Lange recalled, she was just in it to see “who would get to lick the mixing bowl before it went into the sink.”

But Lange grew to share her mother’s passion and carried on the tradition of sharing her own homemade biscotti with others. “I had a passion for making biscotti, and I saw how it made other people happy when I made it.” 

Eventually people started requesting she bring her biscotti to all their parties. But it wasn’t until she spent many years as a graphic designer and suffered a bout with breast cancer that Lange considered turning her passion into her profession. 

“It’s sort of a blessing to go through what I did with my health,” Lange said, noting the cancer made her rethink her life and her priorities. Then when a colleague died from another form of cancer, Lange determined she could put off her plan no longer.

By the weekend, Lange resolved to start her business and give a portion of the proceeds to local breast cancer charities. “It was a win-win for me. I was doing something I had always dreamed I would do.” And she added, “It made me feel good to give back.”

Now Lange works in several farmers’ markets, caters weddings and baby showers and sells her products through her website. “It’s all gourmet food. It’s all hand done, and there is a lot of love and time put into it,” Lange said. “There is nothing else on the market like this.” 

Her products are made in small batches with only the finest, all-natural ingredients. She uses a healthier, unbleached/unbromated flour, pure cane sugar, farm fresh eggs and plenty of fruits and nuts. 

“You don’t take the short cut because you can taste the short cut,” Lange said of her baking philosophy.

Take her cheddar walnut biscotti. “I use lots of real cheddar – no powder or liquid form," she insisted. "I grate cheddar into the product.” She admits this method is a lot of work, but she believes the end result is well worth it. 

Her biscotti come in both sweet and savory flavors because, as Lange explained, while it's common to have biscotti with coffee in America, traditionally biscotti was served to be dipped in wine.

But for those who have a taste for something sweet, Lange also offers biscotti pies. They are made with either chocolate or traditional biscotti for the crust and have canolli or lemon fillings. Letting nothing go to waste, Lange uses crushed biscotti as toppings for ice cream as well. The “true best seller,” though, Lange said is the pumpkin walnut biscotti. She got so many orders for those that the seasonal product is now available year round.

Emphasizing how instrumental the farmers’ markets have been in reaching new customers, Lange said, “The exposure that I get from the market has been wonderful for me.”

Now the biscotti that started out as a little dream in Lafayette, NJ has found customers across the country, even all the way to California.