Carious: Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

I have a confession...




I've never eaten a biscotti before.

"THEN WTF YOU DOING, TRYING TO MAKE 1?!"

I hear you say.



Well. I had lotsa cranberry and pistachio left, and I saw a blog entry of biscotti and it looked so yums. So there I went! Lets just say that it'd been better if I had biscotti before. I didn't really know how thick I had to cut it so I had quite a thick slice of brick. Oh well. It softened up a teeny bit the next day and man was it yums..

And best of all, THERE IS NO OIL/BUTTER/LARD/SHORTENING! =D

Talk about lower calorie indulgence. Noms. My mom and sis loved it to bits! Shall work on making these better!

Trivia!

Biscotti literally means twice baked - Bis - cotti. It came from Prato in Italy. Being baked twice, it gets very dry and hard so it can last longer. It is usually dunked into a beverage such as coffee to be eaten.
From Wikipedia of course! =)

Carious warning!
REMEMBER TO FLOSS AND BRUSH YOUR TEETH DAILY PEOPLE! =D Avoid eating dried fruits cause it's super high in sugar and it doesn't have as much vitamins as the fresh ones.

Original Recipe from here!



2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups (245 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (60 grams) shelled, unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (75 grams) dried cranberries or cherries

Preheat oven to 180deg C. Beat the eggs and sugar until thick and fluffy.



Then, throw in the vanilla, flour and salt and mix with the mixer until combined.



Pour in the cranberries and pistachio and stir it up nicely.



And the ever important finger test. If you don't taste it, the product will fail. Period.



Shape it into a log, about 13 inches long and 7 inches wide? I just smacked it together. Remember to wet your hands or the dough will stick to your hands like a 2 year old kid. Bake it for a full 25 min - 30 min until it starts to brown a little on the top



Remove it from the oven and then cut it into THIN STRIPS diagonally. THIN STRIPS! About 1.5cm strips. I had them at almost 4cm. YIKES. Measure them alright! Then bake them at 160 deg C for another 10 min on each side. It should look slightly toasted. =D



Poured myself a cuppa milk cause I don't take coffee nor tea.. Don't like caffeine and it stains the teeth, although I do still like their taste..

Pressure points and top tips! (from trial and error) =D

1) Eat a biscotti first before making 1. You need to know where to pitch yourself at. Haha.

2) Cut them into thin strips! Biscotti are dry and hard so they gotta be thin thin. Like thin.

3) Don't overbeat the eggs cause they'll lose their fluff and become dense.

4) Ensure that the log is thoroughly cooked before cutting into it. They don't cook again when you baked them the 2nd time at a lower temperature.




Now go make some of these guilt-free yumminess! My mom has already ordered a huge box of these before I go back to Australia. Gonna be a lot of baking in progress.. But hey, no oil/butter/lard/shortening, its totally worth it no?