Lupus and Food: Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti

Time for the next recipe! 

Here you'll find a recipe for Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti. What better holiday treat than sweet biscuit cookies dotted with red and green! 

I've been making biscotti since I was a kid. I was fascinated with anise flavoring and anise seeds, and took every opportunity to incorporate them into recipes -  whether they belonged there or not! My college semester in France got me closer to biscotti perfection, as one of my flat mates introduced me to a great almond biscotti recipe that she had been making with her family for years.

Fast forward to the early days of my marriage, and my husband became my official biscotti taste tester. Some recipes were decent; others, not so much. There's no place to hide with bad biscotti. Either it's perfectly light and crisp with a touch of sweetness, or they're hard, tasteless rocks that are frankly inedible.  

But not this recipe! My husband tasted my first batch, and immediately said, "Oh, these are actually good." A subtle snub to previous attempts, yes, but a glowing review of my current offering. 

Sadly, neither of my daughters can eat these cookies - the flour and the pistachios rule out the GF diet and the tree nut allergy,  respectively.  When this recipe found its way into my news feed, my intention was to use it merely as inspiration to find a biscotti recipe using coconut flour and zero nuts. But I just couldn't help myself.  We were heading to visit a friend who is a coffee drinker, and I thought these would be perfect as a small gift.  They looked so cute packaged! 

I did make a few, ahem, changes to this recipe. First  the nuts - I put an open bag of shelled pistachios on the counter, along with a bag of craisins, just as a reminder to whip up the recipe later in the day. I definitely helped myself to a handful of pistachios a couple times throughout the day, but so did my husband. Before I knew it, the empty bag of pistachios indicated I needed to switch gears. So I used sliced almonds which I also had on hand, and they were fantastic! 

I also used coconut oil in place of the olive oil the recipe called for. Remember, I intended to use coconut flour to make them GF, and thought the coconut oil would really enhance the coconut flavor. But then I changed my mind, and decided to use regular flour, but the coconut oil was already melted. 🤦‍♀️) 

I also subbed in craisins for cranberries.  

Recipe is below. I will write it as I made it, swapping the nuts, oil, and craisins. 

Original recipe courtesy of All Recipes, which you can find here. Enjoy!

Delicious Cranberry and Nut Biscotti 

¾ cup white sugar

¼ cup coconut oil, melted and cooled

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups sliced almonds (to get the flecks of green advertised above, substitute pistachio nuts)

½ cup craisins 

½ cup mini chocolate chips 

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. 

Using a large wooden spoon, mix sugar and melted oil together in a large bowl until well blended. Mix in vanilla extract, then beat in eggs with a fork. Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. Fold in nuts, craisins, and mini chips. 

Divide dough in half. Form each piece into a 12x2-inch log on the prepared cookie sheet. Dough may be sticky; wet hands with cool water to handle dough more easily.

Bake in the preheated oven until logs are light brown, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven. 

Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).

Cut logs on the diagonal into 3/4-inch-thick slices. Lay cookies cut-side down on the cookie sheet, as shown in picture below. 

Bake cookies until dry, no more than 5 minutes on each side. 

Cool and enjoy! 

Another tip that I just read, (because you know if you search "biscotti recipe" even once, Google will send you biscotti tidbits for weeks):

This is from a King Arthur Baking article titled,  "Biscotti, the Most Unassuming Holiday Cookie, may also be the Best". 

Happy baking!