Need Italian-style Pistachio-Cranberry Biscotti Recipe

[bite bite]

Want to bake Mr. Bite-Bite some pistachio-cranberry biscotti as a welcome-home treat (for me too). Mr. Bite-Bite loves Italian-style biscotti (more crispy and bread-like) and dislikes the American-style (more like chewy compressed cake).

Have seen the epicurious recipe for pistachio-crandberry recommended on this board http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec... But these seem more "American style".

Does anyone have a good Italian-style pistachio-cranberry they could share? Also any tips in making biscotti welcome. One chower recommends freezing the biscotti over-night after first baking. Does this work for the Italian-style?

[magnolia]

We enjoy this recipe:

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

1/4 cup mild olive oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 ts vanilla extract
1/2 ts almond extract
2 lg eggs
1 3/4 cups unsifted flour
1/4 ts salt
1 ts baking powder
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups unsalted shelled pistachios

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick baking spray and line with baking parchment. Do not spray parchment.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the olive oil and sugar together. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and the eggs, beating until the mixture is completely blended.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. On low speed, gradually add the flour mix to the egg mixture. Slowly beat in the cranberries and pistachios.

Divide the dough in half. On the cookie sheet, form each half into a log about 12 inches long and 2 inches wide. Space the logs about 4 inches apart. The dough will be sticky. To make it easier to handle, rinse your hands with cool water.

Bake on a rack in the center of the oven for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until the logs are light brown. Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 275 degrees. Let the logs cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.

With a long metal spatula, remove the logs to a cutting board. Use a long sharp knife to cut the log on the diagonal into 3/4-inch slices. Stand the slices upright on their sides on the cookie sheet and return to the oven for 8 to 9 minutes, until they are light brown.

Cool the biscotti on a rack and store in a tin between sheets of waxed paper. They can be stored at room temperature for up to two weeks. Makes about 36. About 95 calories with 4 grams fat.

[bite bite]

Thanks for the detailed recipe, Magnolia. Sounds like a good one. Intrigued by the olive oil. How would you describe their texture?

[magnolia]

I love the texture but that's an important mouth feel to me. I like crispy English muffins, etc. Hubby likes things more tender. This seems to suit us both.

[puppymomma]

Some people call it Spumoni Biscotti. Here's a recipe I've made (last year for Christmas) and it was awesome. Hands-down the best! I got it at Joyofbaking.com

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti
Joyofbaking.com

This crisp and crunchy biscotti is dressed for the holidays with bright red dried cranberries and lovely green pistachios. These are lower in fat than most cookies as they do not contain butter which makes them a nice alternative to all the other rich baked goods during the Christmas season.

If you have lots of baking to do you will be happy to hear that biscotti have a long shelf life so these can be made well ahead of time and they are so good you may even want to give them as gifts (perfect for the coffee lover).

Now, we have used dried cranberries instead of fresh in this recipe. Dried cranberries are just cranberries that have most of their moisture removed (up to 80%) through drying, either by machine or by the sun. The advantage of drying any fruit is to prolong its storage but it has the added benefit of concentrating the fruit's sweetness and flavor. The texture of the fruit becomes all soft and chewy which makes it ideal for both eating out-of-hand and in baking. Dried cranberries can be found in most grocery stores as well as health food stores.

2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 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 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the sugar and eggs on high speed until thick, pale, and fluffy (about 5 minutes). (When you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) At this point beat in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture and beat until combined. Fold in the chopped pistachios and cranberries.

Transfer the dough to your parchment lined baking sheet and form into a log, about 12 inches (30 cm) long and 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) wide. You may have to dampen your hands to form the log as the dough is quite sticky. Bake for 25 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Transfer the log to a cutting board and cut into 3/4 inch (2 cm) slices, on the diagonal. Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes, turn slices over, and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 16 - 20 biscotti.
Adapted from David Lebovitz's Room for Dessert.

Meryl
http://theoccasionalcook.blogspot.com/

[jnstarla]

Giada had a christmas cookie show where she made these - might want to do a quick search on food network's website to see if that recipe is to your liking. I haven't ever made them though, so can't comment on the resulting biscotti.

[bite bite]

Thanks for the recommendation. May just need to experiment. Tricky thing for me is that never having made bsicotti (or being a pro baker), I can't exactly tell from the ingredients how they'll turn out.

[emilief]

I make a cranberry nut biscotti (pecans or hazelnuts) using a recipe from Martha Stewart. They are the Italian style and quite good. I fyou want I can look for it.

[bite bite]

That would be great. Thanks.

[emilief]

Pecan cranberry Biscotti
(can substitute any other nuts)

1 1/2 cup nuts
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3 large eggs plus 2 large yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup dried cranberries
zest of 1 lemon

heat oven to 350. Chop half the nuts. In electric mixer combine baking powder, flour, sugar, and salt. In bowl beat eggs, yolks and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix on low until forms a sticky dough. Stir in nuts, cranberries and zest.
Turn dough onto a floured board and knead slightly. Form 2 9x31/2 inch logs.
Transfer to a prepared baking sheet. Bake 25-30 min until golden brown.Let cool enough to handle about 10 min. Reduce oven to 275. On cutting board, slice logs on the diagonal; into 1/2 inch pieces. Return pieces to baking sheet, cut side down. Bake until lightly toasted about 20 minutes. Turn over and bake on other side about 20 minutes until slightly dry.
Enjoy

[bite bite]

Thanks!

[toodie jane]

here is a link to a good discussion about biscotti and the various ratios of flour/sugar/fat; also a recipe for the ingredients you want to use.

http://www.ellenskitchen.com/bigpots/...

What does the overnight freezing accomplish?

[bite bite]

Wow, toodie, what a fantastic article. Thank you. I feel much clearer on the fundamentals now and she has so many recipes too! Before reading this link, I had no idea what the overnight freezing accomplished, but what Ellen explains is that freezing overnight (after wrapping) helps avoid crumbling if you want to make very thin biscotti (makes slicing easier for the second bake)

[toodie jane]

isn't her biscottipalooza incredible! she must be hyper organized to have been able to figure out the sequences!