Need a tasty breakfast treat to go with your coffee or tea? Well, last Tuesday we made healthy and delicious cranberry-pistachio biscotti. Although for some unknown reason they were not big sellers, in our opinion they turned out great!
We have only ever made biscotti that require butter, so it came as a surprise when the recipe called for oil instead. At first, we (mainly I) was a bit skeptical, but it actually gave the biscotti a slightly healthier flavor that, in my opinion, is more suited to the morning.
Although biscotti are meant to be crunchy and hard so that they can be dunked in a hot beverage, these actually turned out particularly tough. I wouldn’t recommend changing anything in the recipe to fix this, but merely to make sure you have a sufficient dunking beverage before attempting to sink your teeth into this christmas-colored cookie.
Cranberry-Pistachio Biscottie Recipe (from allrecipes.com)
Ingredients
1/4 cup light olive oil
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups pistachio nuts
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts, then beat in the eggs. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; gradually stir into egg mixture. Mix in cranberries and nuts by hand.
- Divide dough in half. Form two logs (12×2 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Dough may be sticky; wet hands with cool water to handle dough more easily.
- Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light brown. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).
- Cut logs on diagonal into 3/4 inch thick slices. Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet. Bake approximately 8 to 10 minutes, or until dry; cool.
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