Almond cranberry biscotti

i have been wanting to make biscotti since that day trip shawn and i took before the semester started. those biscottis were hella good! like, seriously, i was picking the crumbs off the plate. i had to stop myself from licking it because we were sharing a table with 2 nice old women.

i finally decided to make these dunkables since it's my spring break which means... i have time, finally! i am also staying at shawn's for spring break which also means, i have to haul all the things i need to bake/cook/blog. basically, i have stuff at the back of my car that would allow me to cook anywhere that has an oven or stove, salt and pepper too, i normally expect homes to have those. my baking tools are nomads!

although i have michael ruhlman's ratio on hand, i still needed a recipe for this one because i don't think there's a biscotti ratio in the book. i am not sure about that info though, if there is please let me know or if michael ruhlman's reading this, i haven't read the entire book yet, sorry. i went to my go to site for all my baking needs, joyofbaking and saw that she has an almond biscotti recipe posted.

with my computer on the kitchen counter with recipe on it, i gathered all the things required to make biscotti and then i realized something. there was no butter or oil in this recipe. i thought, hmmm, how is this possible, you can bake without butter?!?!?!?! then i remembered that butter makes baked goods tender and moist, two things biscottis are not. so it made sense to me, but the paula deen in me made it quite hard to accept. but i still managed to make it through without butter.

i have been wanting to use cranberries on something since i got it a few weeks ago, and i have decided to dump a cup of it into this recipe. and boy, they tasted really good, but i had a little issue with this recipe. it turned out a little chewy after baking it. i am not sure why, maybe there's too much sugar? or egg? i don't know but i am going to try another recipe next time. one of shawn's housemates, told me that it tasted like a fortune cookie, and i tasted it again and it indeed did. then i remembered, fortune cookies are made of eggs (white), sugar and flour so it makes sense.

well, here's the recipe that i used. enjoy and don't forget to brew up some coffee.



what you need:
1 cup toasted sliced almonds (you can use whole almonds)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup dried cranberries

what to do:
1. preheat oven at 350F/180C. place almonds in a parchment/foil lined baking sheet and toast for about 4-5 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant (if using whole almonds, toast for about 8-10 minutes).
2. after toasting the almonds, reduce oven temperature to 300F/150F.
3. in a small bowl, beat eggs, vanilla and almond extracts together.
4. in a larger bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar until everything is blended.
5. slowly add the egg mixture into the flour mixture while beating, add almonds and cranberries about halfway through and continue beating until it forms a dough (this will be easier if you have a hand or electric mixer).
6. on a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a log about 14 inches long and 3-4 inches wide. then transfer on a parchment lined baking sheet. bake fore about 30-40 minutes or until firm to touch.
7. remove from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes.
8. transfer log into a cutting board and slice diaganolly with a serrated knife. about 1/2 inch thick.
9. arrange slices evenly into a baking sheet and bake 10 minutes, turn them over and back for another 10 minutes or until it's firm to the touch. let it cool on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

if you want to spruce these babies up a little bit, you can dip them in melted chocolate.

p.s. follow me on twitter :) @OOmnivore