Traditional biscotti with almonds and cranberries infused with orange flavor. It is moist and rich.
They have lower fat content than most cookies as the biscotti are baked twice for an extra crunchy texture. Without the egg yolks, they have no extra fat at all. You can replace the almons with pistachiods,walnut,pcecans and what not! 😀 When you are having tea or coffee, it is a perfect light dessert to serve with. I made them in loads and stored in an airtight container. And also they are perfect gifts!
I usually like to make every small thing at home. After making these, I thought I should never buy them at stores. Most times it is hard, dry and too bland. My sister has the store bought ones 😉 but I liked them. It is not always same. Whenever I go to her house, she has wheat bread or oats for the morning 🙂 I will be in vacation mode, so she always gets me loads of junks for me to have! 🙂 She will keep them on the top of her refrigerator, I will go bring the box and start muching from the time I wake up 🙂 Sisters are so good and my sister is even more special to me!!! 🙂 She is always been there for me from the day I was born. Never jealous, we have never had even small fights :)! She is that sweet!!!
- All purpose flour – 2 cups
- Baking powder – 1 tsp
- Sugar – 1 cup
- Vanilla – ½ tsp
- Vegetable oil – 5 tbsp
- Orange Zest –from 1 orange
- Orange juice – 3 tbsp
- Salt – ½ tsp
- Eggs – 2, large
- Flaked Almonds – ¾ cup
- Dried cranberries -3/4 cup
- Keep oven racks in the middle and top of the oven. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a bowl, mix together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder to combine. Take ¼ cup of the flour mixture; toss the orange zest, almonds and cranberries. Mix well and make sure there are no lumps. Take this and mix into the big bowl of the flour mixture.
- Beat the eggs, oil and juice and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix but do not over mix.
- It will be kind of sticky dough, dump dough onto a heavily floured board or cleaned floured tile and divide in to 4 equal portions.
- Roll each piece into a log that’s about 12 inches long, and set the logs about 3 inches apart into the baking sheet. Press to flatten each log so that they are 2 inches wide.
- Bake them now till they are golden and firm near the center. I rotated my baking sheets half way through to insure even baking. It took me about 25-28 minutes.
- Let the logs cool for another 20 minutes. Slice them in a cutting board, cut them diagonally into ½ inch slices.
- Arrange the slices on the baking sheets, laying the cut side down. Return to oven and bake for 8 minutes. Turn the cookies and rotate the baking sheets and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden and lightly browned.
- Let it cool on baking sheets for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store it in an airtight container and use for months
2. Do rotate the baking sheets in step 7 and step 9 to cook it venly.
3. You can replace almonds with hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans or so on And also cranberries with raisins.
4. Avoid back and forth motion so you don’t shatter the loaf when you cut the biscotti. Cut it in one go.
