I made biscotti for the first time last Christmas, it was so easy and lasted for weeks kept in an airtight container. Originally from Tuscany in Italy and traditionally dipped in Vin Santo, these make a perfect after dinner treat and are lovely to gift.
You will need
250g Plain flour
250g Caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
75g pistachios
75g cranberries
75g hazelnuts
75g mixed peel
Zest and juice of an orange
3 eggs
Any of the dried fruit or nuts can be swapped with another variety according to taste. Almonds and dried blueberries also work well. Last year I used chocolate chips but I found they didn’t keep their shape, so I swapped to mixed peel this year and it worked much better.
Put all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix together by hand. This is messy but necessary so the whole nuts are not broken up. The mixture will be very wet and should look like the picture on the right.
Divide the mixture in two. On a floured worktop form two rough sausage shapes and put onto a baking tray lined with grease proof paper. This is not easy as its like handling uncooked cake mixture, but the shapes do not need to be even and the mixture needs to be this wet to work. Bake at 180c or 170c fan oven for about 20 to 25 minutes until they look like the picture on the right (above).
The biscotti at this point will be slightly soft inside like cake. Carefully cut, using a serrated bread knife into approx 1cm slices. Re lay onto the baking sheet. Bake again at 120c for around 20mins to dry out. You do not want the biscotti to brown anymore, just to harden, so keep an eye on it.
Let the biscotti cool and store in airtight containers to keep it from going stale. It will keep for many weeks like this.
Biscotti is lovely with coffee, but my favourite way to eat it is dipped in Armagnac.
There is a highlight making last years batch on my instagram CLICK HERE