These hazlenut biscotti have a warm, complex flavour with a lighter texture than my usual biscotti. They have a hint of cinnamon but if you want a spicier flavour just add more spice, perhaps with mixed spice or ginger as well as the cinnamon. If you like an iced biscotti, making a glace icing with icing sugar and ginger wine would work well.
Ingredients
150g hazlenuts, toasted, skins scruffled off and lightly chopped
150g pine kernals, lightly toasted
150g dried cranberries
250g sugar
150g ground almonds
150g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla.
Set oven to 175C.
Mix the flours, sugar, baking powder and spice together. Stir in the egg and vanilla. It should make a stiffish dough. Mix in chopped nuts, pine kernal and cranberries. This can be hard work; I tend to just smush it all together with my hands. If you are using a food mixer it should be easy but add the nuts with the machine on a very low setting or they will tend to fly out around the room.
Make four logs of the dough on two parchment lined baking sheets. Cook at 175C for about fifteen minutes. The outside will be getting crisp but the middle will be gooey. Let the logs cool for a few minutes then cut into slices and rebake for another ten minutes or so. You can leave the biscotti between the two stages of cooking if that is more convenient- this will also make the biscotti more easy to handle.
Cool on a baking rack. Store in airtight container. These keep very well - I have kept them for a couple of months without any reduction in the quality.
