Could someone please explain to me what is meant by "biscotti" in the U.S.?

Biscotto means "twice baked." The biscotti sold in supermarkets in the U.S. is essentially slices of a sweet bread, baked very crisp , and flavored with anise or orange, etc. The tops of some are coated with chocolate. If you will go to the link below, the photo in the upper right hand corner is what our biscotti looks like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscotti

The one called biscotti in the US are "biscotti di Prato" where Prato is a small city next to Florence.

Biscotti

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A plate of biscottiBiscotti (plural of Italian biscotto, roughly meaning "twice baked") are crisp Italian cookies often containing nuts or flavored with anise. Traditionally, biscotti are made by baking cookie dough in two long slabs, cutting these into slices, and reheating them to dry them out. A basic recipe is a mix two parts flour with one part sugar with enough eggs to create a stiff batter. To the mixture baking powder and flavorings such as anise, chocolate, or nuts are added. The slabs are baked once for about twenty-five minutes. They are then cut up into individual cookies and baked again for a shorter period. The longer this second baking is, the harder the cookies will be. Originally the cookies were twice-baked so they could be stored for long periods of time; because of this storage potential, they historically have been used widely by explorers and soldiers.

Tuscan-style vin santo with almond biscottiBiscotti come in many variants; in different regions of Italy, biscotti are prepared or flavoured differently. In Tuscany they are often eaten with vin santo, though in other parts of the world (particularly the United States) biscotti are considered an essential part of the espresso bar experience. The generally hard texture of biscotti makes the cookie ideal for dipping in coffee, tea, hot chocolate or wine. In Italian, the word "biscotti" is a generic word that refers to any cookie (including the Amaretto biscuit), while in English this word refers to the specific Italian "biscotti di Prato" (sometimes "cantucci" or "cantuccini").

my mom makes biscotti (anise biscotti in particular) it's been a family recipie it is delicious (especially chocolate dipped)!

they are made in a different manner than what we know as cookies.

they are baked in a 'loaf' type form to a certain point, then sliced, turned, and toasted the rest of the time in the oven

picture below:

You got it right on the head- US mass marketers commonly use foreign names to make mass produced foods sound like they are specialty gourmet items, and can command a premium price. The US public, is by and large uneducated enough to fall for it. That being said, I am guilty of buying biscotti now and then with my coffee....

biscotti, is an italian cookie/biscuit it can be made in a variety of flavors, anise, almond, chocolate, etc.. they are normally hard and dry, good for dunking in hot coffee, tea, or cocoa, it also can be kept alot longer than your normal cookie/biscuit. do you now understand?

the biscotti i think of are the hard dry almond flavored, or sometimes lemon flavored cookies you can dip in coffee.

it's a biscuit that has been baked twice. In Spanish it's called biscocho. it's somewhat similar to that.

Wow, I'd think what you already know about it is enough and explanitory...

I think they might be popular because people seem to have a secret desire to eat dog biscuits. So biscotti is the closest form without it tasting gross.

doesn't it mean "twiced baked"?