Pistachio and Raisin Biscotti

Hi,
Hope you all are doing well there. This time I am posting something quite different from my usual posts for you. It’s Biscotti. I have made two kinds; quite similar ones which you will find at the end of this post. I made these delicious fingers couple of weeks back when I was obsessed about baking and just wanted to bake something that was free of fat! When I googled, not many options were there that uses less or no fat and only Biscotti was something that pleased me. Biscottis are just the perfect stuff to dunk in tea, coffee or even milk and are so filling. Unlike cookies, the texture of these finger beauties can be compared to that of rusks; crispy and crunchy and dry. I would say these are the royal cousins of rusks packed with nuts and dried fruits and tastes so yummy. Since it contains no added butter or fat, it is quite low in fat as well; a totally guilt free snack. I already made it twice in few days time. My husband and my little one just loved it. They are not much of cookie fans, but they liked these alot. They always had it with their milk and tea on evenings and I had to push myself to make it again after few days!. The second time I made it, I ran out of pistachio, so substituted them with almonds and added a bit of lemon rind for a change of flavour. We loved the pistachio one much more, and the green specks made them looks so good as well. Biscotti would last much more than you could imagine. You can wrap these up in a clear bag, tie it up with a lovely ribbon and that would make a lovely present for anyone. And my kitchen counter looks so good with biscotti filled jars!Lol..Take a look at the recipe:

Pistachio and Raisin Biscotti
Makes about 20-24 Biscotti.
Recipe Courtesty:www.joyofbaking.com


Ingredients:
½ cup shelled unsalted pistachios
½ cup raisins/dried cranberries/Cherries
2/3 cup fine granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Preparation:

1.In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs at high speed using an electric hand beater for about 5 minutes until you get a thick and pale yellow mousse like mixture. At this point, you should be able to draw a figure “8” using the balloon whisk. Add in vanilla essence and beat until combined.

2. In another bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well using a wire whisk or sieve 2-3 times if there are lumps.

3. Add flour to the early beaten egg and sugar mixture and mix using a large spoon. Add the chopped nuts and raisins and just mix with the spoon.

4. Pre-heat the oven to 175 Degree Celcius.

5. Oil a baking paper and place it on a baking sheet. Place dough in the centre of the baking sheet and roll using the baking paper to form a log of 30 cm length and 9 cm wide. The dough at this stage will be really sticky. So rolling into a log with hands will be a bit messy. Oil the hands if you are handling the dough with hands. (First time I made log by rolling it using hand which was messy. But the second time, I placed the dough in the center of the baking paper, covered the dough with baking paper from one end and rolled slowly to form a log.)

6. Place it in the centre rack of the oven and bake it for 25 minutes or until just firm and slightly golden in colour. Don’t make it really golden; it will be difficult to slice. Remove from the oven and let to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

7. Reduce the oven temperature to 165 Degrees.

8. Transfer the log on to a chopping board and cut into 2 cm slices, on the diagonal (Cut slices in a slanting position). Cut the slices in a sawing motion moving the knife forward and backward for getting a neat slice, rather than crumbled biscotti. Use a serrated knife for the ease of cutting.

9. Place the cut biscottis on the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Turn the slices over and bake for another 10 minutes or slightly golden. Let them cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Lemon Scented Almond and Raisin Biscotti
Makes about 20-24 Biscotti.

Similar to those Pistachio Raisin Biscotti are these Lemon Scented Almond and Raisin Biscotti. As I mentioned, the former ones were so very much in demand, So I had to push myself to bake them again. Actually I was overjoyed for getting a chance to bake again and something that everyone would really eat. I have used almonds instead of Pistachios and added a lemon’s rind to the dough. The citrusy smell in the Biscotti was so refreshing. The whole flat had a citrusy aroma when the biscottis were baking in the oven. I would have preferred to add chocolate chunks to the dough rather than raisins, but was sure that my hubby wouldn’t like them when they contain chocolates. Sigh! So I was forced to finish up with raisins. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
½ cup Almonds, chopped
1 large lemon’s rind,grated
½ cup raisins/dried cranberries/Cherries
2/3 cup fine granulated sugar
2 large eggs
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Preparation:
1.In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs at high speed using an electric hand beater for about 5 minutes until you get a thick and pale yellow mousse like mixture. At this point, you should be able to draw a figure “8” using whisk. Add in vanilla essence and lemon rind and beat until combined.

2. In another bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well using a wire whisk or sieve 2-3 times if there are lumps.

3. Add flour to the early beaten egg and sugar mixture and mix slowly using a large spoon. Add the chopped nuts and raisins and just mix with the spoon.

4. Pre-heat the oven to 175 Degree Celcius.

5. Oil a baking paper and place it on a baking sheet. Place this dough in the centre of the baking paper and roll using the baking sheet to form a log of 30 cm length and 9 cm wide. The dough at this stage will be really sticky. So rolling into a log with hands will be a bit messy. Oil the hands if you are handling the dough with hands. (First time I made log by rolling it using hand which was messy. But the second time, I placed the dough in the center of the baking paper, covered the dough with baking paper from one end and rolled slowly to form a log.)

6. Place it in the centre rack of the oven and bake it for 25 minutes or until just firm and slightly golden in colour. Don’t make it really golden; it will be difficult to slice. Remove from the oven and let to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

7. Reduce the oven temperature to 165 Degrees.

8. Transfer the log on to a chopping board and cut into 2 cm slices, on the diagonal (Cut slices in a slanting position). Cut the slices in a sawing motion moving the knife forward and backward for getting a neat slice, rather than crumbled biscotti. Use a serrated knife for the ease of cutting.

9. Place the cut biscottis on the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Turn the slices over and bake for another 10 minutes or slightly golden. Let them cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.