(from Debra Zambetti)
Makes approximately 14 cookies
1 ¼ cups almond meal or almond flour, scooped and leveled (not packed)
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup brown rice syrup
¼ cup almonds, chopped medium-fine
¼ cup dark chocolate, chopped fine
¼ cup dried cherries, roughly chopped
Other add-in options:
• currants, blueberries, or other dried fruit
• unsweetened coconut flakes
• pistachios or walnuts (instead of almonds)
• orange zest
• melted chocolate, for dipping
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine almond flour, arrowroot powder, salt, baking soda, and spices in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Add brown rice syrup and process until ingredients come together in a ball. Place chocolate, almonds and cherries in a large bowl. When “dough” is ready, remove from processor and add to large bowl and knead ingredients together with your hands.
When thoroughly combined, shape into a long log. The dough will expand somewhat, but not greatly, so make the log wider or thinner depending on how long you want the biscotti. (You’ll be cutting it on the bias, so a fat log will yield long cookies, whereas a long thin log will give you two- to three-bite-sized cookies).
Place the log on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from oven and let cool completely, approximately 1 hour.
Reduce oven temperature to 300° F. When the log is cool, use a serrated bread knife to slice each log on the bias into ½- to 1-inch pieces (less than ½ inch will make for very, very crisp cookies). Turn biscotti on their side (so they lay flat) and spread out evenly on baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes—the thicker the cut, the longer they’ll need for the second bake. Remove from oven and let cool again. The biscotti will still be soft hot from the oven but will crisp as they cool.
Once completely cooled, dip in melted chocolate and roll in nuts, coconut, or other toppings to take them over the top. Store biscotti in an airtight container.
Note: Almond flour/meal is made from finely ground almonds (sometimes the almonds are blanched first). It is easy to find at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Brown rice syrup is an alternative to baking with refined sugar. This excerpt from an article on Examiner.com (Philadelphia edition) this past May succinctly explains the where, what, and how of brown rice syrup:
“Brown rice syrup is produced from brown rice that has been ground and cooked … [it] is about half as sweet as sugar and tastes like not-too-sweet butterscotch or caramel. Sweeteners like brown rice syrup made from malted grains retain at least some of the nutrients found in the whole grain as well as complex sugars which take longer to digest, smoothing out blood sugar levels. Two tablespoons of brown rice syrup has 150 calories and 22 grams of sugar but also provides 3% of your daily requirement of sodium and potassium. The glycemic index of brown rice syrup has been reported to be a low 25 compared to 64 for white sugar and 96 for pure glucose.”
