Raisin-Almond Biscotti
My boyfriend absolutely loves biscotti so I went searching for a recipe that we used about 2 years ago. I remembered we had one cookbook at the time, the New American Heart Association Cookbook, so I went delving into it and found this recipe. Technically it is Apricot-Almond Biscotti but we don’t like apricots so we substituted raisins instead. One thing though… this is NOT biscotti! We made it and found the flop that can happen sometimes in healthy recipes – it did not turn out like a normal recipe would come out. However, this is a really good tasting sweet bread. The icing on top with the almonds and raisins is really good. I will definitely make this again! Here is the recipe:
Vegetable oil spray
2 c all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp grated lemon zest (didn’t use…)
1/4 tsp almond extract
3/4 c finely chopped dried apricots (used raisins instead…)
1/4 c chopped almonds, dry-roasted
Flour for kneading
3/4 c sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 to 3 tsp water
Preheat the oven at 350*. Lightly spray a baking sheet with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, applesauce, lemon zest (meh), and almond extract. Whisk the apricots (raisins) and almonds (make sure you toast/roast the almonds first, I toasted mine on the stove) into the egg mixture. Whisk the egg mixture into the flour mixture.
Lightly flour a flat surface; turn out the dough. Knead just until blended, 10 to 12 strokes. With slightly moistened hands, form into two 8-inch logs. Set the logs on the baking sheet. Slightly flatten to 2 1/2 inch width. Bake for 25 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 300*F. Let the biscotti cool on cooling rack for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Gradually stir in water until the desired consistency. Brush on the logs. Cut into 1/2 inch slices.
*** here I stopped because they were already crispy and I wanted the inside to be soft. If you want really hard “biscotti” continue below 🙂
Place the biscotti with the cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the slices over. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack.
Again, this recipe came from the New American Heart Association Cookbook, 7th edition, page 606 🙂 Happy Cooking!!
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