Fruity Nutty Biscotti

It’s Monday again and I am ready with my entry for the 46 th Foodie Monday Blog hop. Thanks to the bloghop, it keeps me excited the whole week looking forward to my entry and other talented blog hop members mouth watering entries.This has helped me to shed my inhibitions regarding lot of recipes which I never initiated thinking the process to be cumbersome.But now I take it like a challenge working towards it and surprisingly the bloghop has pushed me out of my comfort zone and has stretched my skills and abilities.

Biscotti, oblong shaped, dry and crunchy Italian Almond biscuits was one of the recipes that I never attempted thinking to be a very complicated process. I was wrong!! It’s a fairly straightforward process where we basically bake the biscuits twice and the word Biscotti or Biscotto(singular) translates to “twice baked”. The only tricky part is getting the second bake right so that we don’t get a chewy texture and we don’t break a tooth either. The aim is to dry out the biscotti till a perfect crisp texture is attained.

The weather here in Goa is pathetically gloomy and it’s raining cats and dogs since eternity ! And being a Chai addict I have been thriving on Chai and these crunchy, crispy biscotti to keep my rainy day blues away. These oblong beauties are fat free and guilt free and perfect to dunk in your morning cup of coffee and tea. This time the theme for the bloghop being Dry Fruits I used loads of nuts and dried fruits to make these biscotti. The basic recipe has been adapted from my favourite Donna Hay ‘s Cook book.

I have used Dried Apricots, Cranberries, Sultanas and sliced Almonds with the basic recipe and have flavoured them with lemon rind and Vanilla extract. In this recipe eggs are the binding agents as no fat is used and that’s why they have a texture which is snappier making them dunking friendly. With a variety of recipes to choose from and innumerable ways to decorate them they are a creative gift alternative and an excellent way to bring a little bit of Italy home.

Fruity Nutty Biscotti

Print Recipe

 These fruity nutty biscotti ,traditional Italian bakes are wonderfully crunchy cookies, perfect to dunk in your morning cup of coffee or tea.

• Coursedessert, snack
• CuisineItalian

Servings	Prep Time
40 piece	15 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
45 minutes	20 minutes

Servings Prep Time 40 piece 15 minutes

Cook Time Passive Time 45 minutes 20 minutes

Fruity Nutty Biscotti Print Recipe  These fruity nutty biscotti ,traditional Italian bakes are wonderfully crunchy cookies, perfect to dunk in your morning cup of coffee or tea. Coursedessert, snack CuisineItalian Servings Prep Time 40 piece 15 minutes Cook Time Passive Time 45 minutes 20 minutes Servings Prep Time 40 piece 15 minutes Cook Time Passive Time 45 minutes 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 Cups all purpose flour sifted
• 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
• 3/4 Cup castor sugar or powdered
• 3 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp lemon rind Finely grated
• 1 1/2 cups dried fruits nuts ( apricots, cranberries,sultanas,sliced Almonds)

Servings: piece

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C. Chop the Apricots and sultanas,not very fine.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl with a whisk.
3. Add the eggs, vanilla, lemon rind and the dried fruit and nuts and mix until you form a dough.
4. Turn the dough out unto your work platform and use your hands and some flour to knead the dough. The dough will be sticky and unmanageable.
5. Form the dough into two logs on a greased and lined baking sheet. You have to take the help of dry flour to make the logs as it will be very sticky. Or you can bake the dough in 2 mini, greased loaf pans.
6. Flatten the logs a little and bake them for 30-35 mins or till firm.
7. Cool the logs for 15 mins and slice them thinly and diagonally with a serrated knife.
8. 
9. Place the pieces back on the baking tray and this time bake them in an increased temperature of 180 deg C for nearly 10 minutes or until crisp. Make sure to preheat the oven before baking the second time.
10. Cool on the tray before serving.

Recipe Notes

 

 

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