Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

This cranberry and pistachio biscotti is beautifully crisp and with its pops of red and green it is the perfect Christmas biscotti recipe.

Course: Baking

Cuisine: New Zealand

Keyword: cranberry pistachio biscotti, christmas biscotti, holiday biscotti, biscotti recipe

Diet: Dairy Free

Servings: pieces

Calories: 152kcal

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Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius (325 F)
In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder, then fold through the cranberries and chopped pistachios
In a second large bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, olive oil, vanilla extract and orange zest until the mixture becomes pale.
Add the wet ingredients,to the dry ingredients and combine with a wooden spoon. The biscotti dough will be quite sticky
Line a baking sheet with baking or parchment paper, then lightly flour the baking paper.
Transfer the dough onto the floured baking tray, flour your hands then shape the dough into a wide (about 12 cm wide) flat log.
Bake for 40 minutes, remove from the oven then allow to cool to the touch. Reduce the temperature of your oven to 130 degrees Celsius.
Slice the warm biscotti into 1.5 cm thick slices. Lay the biscotti slices on a baking paper line sheet
Bake the biscotti slices in the 130-degree Celsius oven for 20 minutes, flip the biscotti and bake for a further 10 minutes. The baked biscotti should be lighlty golden brown.
Allow to cool completely then store in an airtight container
Enjoy

Use a serrated knife to slice the warm biscotti, using light pressure and sawing back and forth so that you don't flatten/crush the biscotti before it is double-baked.
If your biscotti is too fragile to slice, try leaving it for a few more minutes to cool, as it hardens when it cools, you just don't want it to get too hard
Folding the cranberries through the dry ingredients before they are added to the dough stops them from all clumping together
This recipe can easily be adapted with other fruit and nut combinations, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, raisins, currants, dates and apricots are all lovely in biscotti
To make this biscotti even more special you can drizzle it with melted white chocolate.
When stored in an airtight container biscotti will last up to two weeks at room temperature, it can be frozen for up to four months.
Sugar: Granulated white sugar or Caster Sugar will work.
Eggs: I use quite large eggs
Olive oil: Choose a light olive oil with a mild flavor. You can substitute the oil for melted butter.
Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract gives a lovely flavor to the biscotti.
Orange zest: this can be substituted for lemon zest. Orange and cranberries is a match made in heaven though.
Flour: All-purpose flour is what I used (plain flour) but I have made this recipe successfully with gluten-free flour as well
Pistachios: Unsalted and shelled.