I asked my Instagram family what they would like to see me bake this week as I had cranberries, apricots and pistachios that I wanted to use. The choice was between biscotti and oat bars and biscotti won. I secretly wanted oat bars to win but after baking these I’m so glad they didn’t! I ended up making two types of biscotti, one with butter and the other with olive oil. I made both as an experiment, to see which comes out better. Using oil is apparently more authentically Italian. This one has almond essence which makes it smells heavenly! You can find the chocolate biscotti here.

I used this recipe found on Allrecipes.com but substituted some of the ingredients as I did not have enough.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup canola & olive oil blend
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 1/2 cup pistachios, chopped
• handful of dried Turkish apricots, chopped (I used dried apricot roll as I did not have Turkish apricots)

METHOD:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150°C. Line a large baking tray with a non stick baking mat or greaseproof paper.
2. Whisk the oil and sugar until well combined.
3. Add the vanilla and almond essence and mix well. Then add the eggs and beat until combined.
4. Mix the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, baking powder) and stir into the wet ingredients.
5. Fold in the cranberries, nuts and apricots.
6. Divide the mixture into two and roll the mixture into a long sausage shape. Wet your hands with cold water and shape – the mixture is quite sticky.
7. Place the two logs on the baking tray and bake for 35 minutes until lightly golden.
8. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes then slice each log at an angle (thickness to your preference).
9. Reduce oven temperature to 135°C, place biscotti cut side up on a baking tray and bake for a further 10 minutes.
10. Turn biscotti over and bake the other side for 10 minutes.
11. Cool completely on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.
12. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea!