I’m so excited to share this biscotti recipe with you!
I truly have been working on this for several years, perfecting what I think is an incredible crunchy and light biscotti cookie!
At Christmas , I just really want to dip a biscotti in my coffee . And I have never really found one from the store that I love- as in, if I’m gonna start my day with a cookie , it better be an awesome one.
There are a few tricks in this recipe.
The first is to soak your dried cherries or cranberries in boiling water. This plumps them up and helps them hold their flavor through the slow cooking process.
The second is the combination of self raising flour and baking powder. Honestly, this was a mistake! I accidentally baked a test batch with self raising flour + baking powder and was amazed to discover that it just created a really light, fluffy and therefore crispy -once fully cooked -biscotti.
The third essential element here is the tangerine sugar. We added this after testing several batches and feeling like they needed a little more kick of ‘just something’ . Especially here in Hawaii, tangerines and other citrus are going off this time of year so I love adding that Big Island touch.
So I hope you really enjoy making these biscotti. It’s one of the easier cookie recipes I’ve seen. It’s not very labor-intensive, it just takes a little bit of time because you have to put them back in the oven once you slice them.
Store these in a very, very airtight container, and eat them with your morning coffee in bed!
Ingredients :
1 cup dried cherries or cranberries
1 cup boiling water
3 cups self raising flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup raw sugar, plus more for sprinkling
3 large eggs, plus 1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup slivered almonds
For the Tangerine Sugar:
1/2 cup raw sugar
zest of two small Tangerines, about 1 Tbsp
Method:
Preheat oven; line baking sheet; plump cranberries and combine dry ingredients:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Place cherries in a small bowl; add boiling water. Let stand until plump, about 15 minutes. Drain, and set aside. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.
Beat butter and sugar; add eggs one at a time:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
Add vanilla, then flour mixture; stir in fruit and nuts:
Beat in vanilla and almond extract. Add flour mixture, and mix on low speed until combined. Mix in cherries and almonds.
Make the Tangerine Sugar:
Gently grate the zest of your tangerines right into the raw sugar. Be careful to only zest the orange part, stay away from the white, its bitter. Using your hands, rub the zest into the sugar until fully incorperated.
Shape dough:
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape each piece into a 16-by-2-inch log, and transfer to prepared baking sheet, about 3 inches apart. With the palm of your hand, flatten logs slightly. Brush beaten egg over surface of the dough logs, and sprinkle generously with the Tangerine Sugar. I even press the sugar in a little.
Bake and cool:
Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until logs are slightly firm to touch, about 25 minutes. Transfer logs on parchment paper to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
Slice into cookies:
Place logs on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut logs crosswise on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices.
tip:
( You will need a long, sharp serrated knife to successfully cut the baked biscotti logs into slices. The serrated blade will cut neatly through the nuts and dried fruit while keeping the structure of the cookie intact.)
Bake on wire rack over baking sheet; cool:
Place a wire rack on a large rimmed baking sheet. Arrange slices, cut sides down, on rack. Bake until firm to touch, about 30 minutes. Remove pan from oven; let biscotti cool completely on rack.
Enjoy and Merry Christmas xo Beth