Make: Pistachio and Apricot Biscotti
On the scale of cookies, traditional biscotti (meaning “twice baked” in Italian) is definitely a “healthier” choice. While you’ll certainly find sugar and eggs in the mix, you won’t find butter or oil. It pays off: the total fat per serving is just 1.5 grams. And the calories aren’t bad either at less than 80 per cookie.
Of course, you can absolutely buy biscotti at the grocery store, but store-bought brands are often chock-full of preservatives and stabilizers. If you’re anything like me and don’t want to fill your body with those kinds of compounds, it’s time to head to the kitchen. Besides, cooking at home saves you cash and calories to boot.
These biscotti cookies aren’t ones you’ll reach for at a dessert display (mostly because there isn’t chocolate in them), but they’re dangerous in their own right. They are chewy, sweet and completely addictive. After I made a batch, I put a Post-It on the container that read, “NO, Becca, NO!!” Didn’t work—I averaged about six per day.
Here’s hoping you have better luck.
Pistachio and Apricot Biscotti
Makes 40 biscotti cookies
1 1/4 c. flour
1 c. white whole-wheat flour
1 c. sugar
2 tsp. lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. unsalted (shelled) pistachios
1/2 c. chopped dried apricots
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg white
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. Stir in pistachios and apricots.
4. Whisk eggs, yolk (reserve the white!), lemon juice and vanilla in a small bowl.
5. Slowly pour egg mixture into dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Mixture will be dry.
6. With clean hands, work and shape the dough in the bowl, creating a cohesive round ball.
7. On a greased cookie sheet (or one lined with Silpat or parchment paper), shape dough into two logs (2 inches high, 4 inches wide, 16 inches long).
8. Add 1 tbsp. water to remaining egg white and beat with a fork to blend. Brush mixture over logs before baking.
9. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove and let cool 10 minutes, keeping oven temp at 325 degrees.
10. Slice into 1 inch cookies and return to pan, laying on their sides.
11. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until starting to turn golden brown.
12. Cool completely on wire rack. Biscotti will keep at room temperature for up to a week or frozen up to three months.
Per serving: 77 calories, 1.5 grams fat, 17 milligrams cholesterol, 66 milligrams sodium, 36 milligrams potassium, 15 grams carbs, 1 gram dietary fiber, 2 grams protein.
>> Check out more Be Well Philly recipes here.
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Becca Boyd is a wife and new mom who teaches culinary courses to students at Radnor High School. She creates healthy and delicious recipes in her West Chester kitchen and blogs about them on her website, Home Beccanomics.
