Fruitcake Biscotti
Biscotti are classic Italian cookies that get their well- known signature crispness from being twice baked. The twice-baked Italian cookies originate from the city of Prato.
If you haven’t tried Biscotti yet, you are missing out big time. Especially, if you love to dunk something in your coffee or tea. This is it.
With holidays coming our way, I wanted to share one of our favorite cookie recipes. Biscotti makes the cut. I make them quite often but specially around holidays more often as they make great gifts.
The best thing about them is they don’t go stale as quick as other cookies can due to less moisture in them and being twice baked. Take one basic recipe and you can flavor it up to your liking. You can add anything you like and make them your way.
If you like homemade baked cookies for gifts for teachers, friends or neighbors, these are a great choice.
Biscotti’s have regular ingredients that you can find in your kitchen like flour, sugar, eggs, butter, dry fruits. The recipe I am sharing today has candied fruits the one we use for fruit cakes. They are easily available at most of stores this time of the year. Check the baking aisles or ask the staff working at the stores. I ordered mine from nuts.com and I have also foudn them at shoprite stores. If you want to use Tutti Frutti instead of candied fruits, you can easily try it.
Some of the important tips;
Start with ingredients that are at room temperature.
Once the biscotti loaves are baked, allow them to cool down for at least 7-10 minutes before slicing into them. Allow the biscotti to cool down on a cookie rack before slicing into them. Carefully transfer the biscotti loaves to a cutting board. With a sharp serrated knife, slice the loaves at an angle into ½-inch thick slices. This step is very important. If you try to slice them while they are hot, then you can end up breaking the cookie loaf. So, let it cool down. Using a serrated knife also is very helpful.
Biscotti are supposed to be crispy, crunchy and hard. So, you can dunk them in your coffee easily without it breaking apart. I already shared about the mixings, you can literally use any nuts, dry fruits of your choice. For flavoring- try lemon zest, orange zest, vanilla, or almond extract. You can also use cinnamon or cardamom powder. Lot of original recipes call for anise seeds for flavoring. You can use that too. How about some chocolate chips to be added? You can also dip biscotti halfway into melted chocolate, but it is not necessary for added chocolate flavor.
Nuts– Hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, macadamia nuts etc
Dried Fruits – Cranberries, sour cherries, blueberries, black currants or candied orange or other fruits, Tutti Frutti etc.
Flavoring – Orange or lemon zest, liqueur, almond extract, vanilla extract, spice powders like cardamom, cinnamon or classic anise seeds etc
Chocolate chips – White, milk or dark chocolate chips
Drizzle – Melted chocolate of your choice or dip them halfway into melted chocolate
Do not forget to dunk them coffee, tea or vin santo!
Fruitcake Biscotti
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or almond extract
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 1 tsp cardamom or cinnamon powder optional
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup almond meal/flour optional you can also use cocoa powder for chocolate flavor
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup nuts toasted and roughly chopped
- ½ cup candied fruits roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp sour dried cherries or cranberries optional, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone mat.
- Take the room temperature butter in a mixing bowl attached to stand mixer. Cream the butter until it is light and creamy for 2 minutes. Slowly add the sugar and beat it until it is light and fluffy.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add eggs one at a time and beat well until mixture is smooth. Add in the flavorings like orange zest, cinnamon or cardamom powder, vanilla extract etc. Add in the dry ingredients flour, almond meal, salt, and baking powder and mix until just combined. Stir in the nuts and candied fruits, cherries with the help of spatula.
- Mix well to divide them equally in the dough. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 2 equal portions in a log shape.
- The log should be shaped in the length of your baking sheet about 2 inches in diameter. Place the logs on the baking sheet. I used two baking sheets, as the logs bake, they spread slightly, and you don’t want them to touch each other. But if you decide to use one sheet make sure to leave about 2-inch space between two logs.
- Bake for about 25 minutes until the logs look slightly browned on top. Remove them from oven. Let them cool down on wire rack for 7-10 minutes. Very important to let them cool down.
- Transfer the log to cutting board, cut them diagonally into slices about 2 inches wide and 2 inches thick. Transfer the slices, place cut side down on the baking sheet and bake again for 10-15 minutes until the edges look lightly brown. Let the cookies cool down on a wire cooling rack.
- Once they are completely cool, you can place them in air-tight container.
Notes
- Always use room temperature ingredients.
- Use toasted nuts, if you do not have any toasted nuts, lightly toast them in preheated oven for 3 minutes.
- You can use any kind of nuts almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, etc
- You can use any type of dried fruits sour cherries, blueberries, cranberries, raisins etc
- Instead of almond meal use same amount of cocoa powder for chocolate version.
- You can also, dip or drizzle melted chocolate on the baked biscotti.
XO, Devangi