SIMPLE BISCOTTI RECIPE

For those days when you want something sweet with your coffee, but you don’t quite want a big slice of cake, this little simple biscotti recipe makes the perfect treat.

Traditionally Biscotti are a little Italian biscuit baked twice to make them wonderfully crisp. They work really well dipped into your coffee or hot chocolate and make a lovely sweet treat.

I’ve used pistachios and cranberries here, but you can substitute those ingredients for any dried fruit or nuts. I have made these simply with whole almonds and a little almond extract and they are delicious with a freshly made espresso.

INGREDIENTS

• 200g Plain Flour

• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

• 200g Caster Sugar

• 50g Ground Almonds

• 200g Pistachios

• 100g Cranberries

• 2-3 eggs

• a little white chocolate

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 160 fan/gas 3. Grease and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, sugar, ground almonds, pistachios and cranberries.

Gently beat together the 3 eggs. Add this to the dry mixture until you form a soft dough. This will likely take all 3 eggs, but you don’t want the dough to be too sticky. You can also add a little almond extract or vanilla extract here if you wish.

Place the dough onto the baking tray and pat or roll into a large rectangle about 1cm high. It doesn’t need to be too perfect and can taper at the sides slightly.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and then remove from the oven and leave on a cooling rack to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 145fan/gas 2.

Once cool, gently remove from the baking parchment the baked dough and then using a serrated knife, cut the baked dough rectangle into 1 cm slices. Place the slices back onto the baking tray, cut side facing up.

Bake in the oven again for a further 20-30 minutes until slightly golden and crisp. Once baked, transfer to a cooling tray.

If desired, melt the white chocolate and drizzle over the cooled biscotti to finish.