Bad recipe...no shortening in real biscotti, what you made is more like mandelbrot.
Try this recipe...it seems like it will never come together but keep working it and it will...and it is permissable to add a few drops of water...but it should be a crumbly sticky dough.

Biscotti Di Prato

3 3/4 C all purpose flour (stirred till fluffy before measuring)
2 C sugar
1 tsp double acting baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla ( or 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond extract if using
almonds)
1 2/3 c almonds or hazle nuts coarsley chopped and litely toasted.
eggwash

Mix flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.
whisk together eggs, yolks and extracts, add eggs, etc to flour mixture and
stir until a dough forms (looks like it can never happen... but keep
working it...it will. I sometimes add a VERY little sprinkling of water)
add nuts, turn out on a non-stick surface ( I use a marble board or my
formica rolling board) and knead 3 or 4 times. Divide into fourths and
shape each piece into a 11 x 2 in. log ( make it "tall" as they flatten
while baking) Place on buttered and floured baking sheets, brush with egg
wash (egg yolk whisked with 1 T water). Bake at 350 for 35 min and cool 20
min. Slice 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Place on clean baking sheets ( cut side
down) and bake 10 or 12 minutes at 275. turn pieces over and bake another
10 minutes. If you want to make them extra fancy, dip half a slice in
melted chocolate and sprinkle with finly chopped nuts. You can make bigger
'scottis by making two thicker logs, but be sure to leave room for spread.

Best dipped in tea or coffee....or best yet in a sweet dessert wine!

Enjoy! Linda

I don't see any shortening in Alexa's recipe? I looked at the recipe I usually make and the baking times are a little bit longer and I don't lower the oven temp for the second baking. I bake at 350° for 35 minutes the first round then 10-12 minutes at the same temp for the second round. I think you may be happier with the recipe if you increase your baking time slightly. Good luck!

Yup, Linda is correct. It's the shortening as well as the cranberries (adds some moisture) that make it tender rather than hard.

Here is my recipe:

Almond Biscotti

1 1/4 cup whole unblanched almonds (I buy the toasted unblanched unsalted almonds from Trader Joe and skip the first step below)
2 cups unsifted unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup sugar (I like the organic cane sugar from Trader Joe)
1 level teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Roast the almonds for 10 to 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven until lightly browned.

Watch closely as they burn easily. Set the nuts aside to cool completely.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lower the oven to 300 degrees.

Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl just to mix. Set aside half a cup of the mixture. In a small bowl lightly beat the eggs and vanilla. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the eggs. Stir in the flour from the sides. When too stiff to stir, turn out the gobs of dough onto a surface floured with some of the dry ingredient mix set aside. With floured hands fold the dough over itself until it coheres. Use the rest of the dry ingredient mix to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and work surface.

Press the nuts into the dough and keep folding it over itself until they are evenly distributed. Let the dough rest for a few minutes so that the flour will absorb the liquid and make it less sticky.

Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Shape each piece into a strip about 2-3 inches wide and about twelve inches long. When cut these will produce about 3 dozen cookies about 4 inches long. It is the cook's privilege to eat the wee end bits!

Place the strips on the parchment covered baking sheet leaving at least 3 inches between them.

Bake at 300 degrees for 50 minutes. Check your oven to make sure the temperature is correct and not hotter than you think.

Let them cool for 10-15 minutes. Remove from baking sheets with a spatula and transfer them to a cutting board. Using a sharp serrated bread knife, cut diagonal bars every half inch. Lay the cookies on their sides on two parchment covered cookie sheets and put them back in the oven to toast for 35 to 50 minutes, depending on how dark you want them.

Cool on a rack.

Variations:

For Lemon-Almond Biscotti

Add the following to the beaten eggs:
Zest from 3 organic lemons
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Omit vanilla
Dough may be a little stickier, use a little more flour on the board when kneading and pressing nuts into dough.
I find that the lemon version browns more quickly. I use the shorter second baking time.

For Chocolate-Walnut Biscotti (a hard, crunchy version, no shortening)

Substitute walnuts, coarsely chopped, for almonds (you can toast before baking but I don't)
Add:
1/2 cup cocoa powder to dry ingredients
1/2 cup additional sugar to dry ingredients
1/4 teaspoon additional baking soda to dry ingredients
1 additional egg (for a total of 4 eggs)
1 tablespoon white vinegar to beaten eggs

Dough may be a little stickier, use a little more flour on the board when kneading and pressing nuts into dough.

The Chocolate-Walnut Biscotti are good with one side dipped in semi-sweet chocolate.

I would disagree with saying it's a bad recipe. There are two kinds of biscotti recipes. The ones with butter turn out less hard. You can eat them without having to dunk them in order to save your teeth. I kind of prefer that!

Christine, you aren't alone. I converted a couple of friends to biscotti with another recipe not posted above for chocolate-walnut biscotti which has unsweeted chocolate squares and butter. While still hard, they are also tender.

But....the ones you don't have to dunk are not biscotti, they are mandlebrot.
Biscotti are hard...there is not enough moisture in them for them to mold and they certainly can't go stale!

As for shortening....the word shortening just means that which makes a dough "short". flakey, crumbley and any kind of fat will do that. In the old days before Crisco and Spry, a dough was made short with butter, lard, suet, goose fat, chicken fat or a vegetable oil, usually olives.
Somewhere about the time of WW I, manufacturers came out with things like Fluffo and Cottolene, advertised as "more healthful than Lard".
Butter is shortening as is lard and oil as well as Crisco.
Linda C

As an FYI, my first recipe is a very close clone of Tempesta almond biscotti. They are a San Francisco company so I don't know if you have them there.