Once upon a time, I wanted to bake something sweet.
(Oh, who am I kidding? I usually want to bake something sweet at least twice, if not thrice*, a day.)
I started running through various recipe ideas in my head, but everything I thought of I discounted immediately because I’d made and blogged about something similar already. Muffins, cookies, granola, slices, loaf cakes… been there, done that. Ho-hum.
Then I remembered a favourite recipe of mine which could plausibly be categorised as a new type of baked good on this blog: Spiced Pine Nut Biscotti. Sure, biscotti is technically a type of cookie, but what’s in a name? Didn’t some fourteen-year-old flibbertigibbet once say something about a rose and smelling as sweet**? I thereby proclaim that, on this day, biscotti ≠ cookie***.
Please refrain from all scatological references.
At this point, I should admit that there’s something a little odd about me, and this oddness had an impact upon my biscotti-making. See, I absolutely refuse to let a day go by without there being peanut butter, oatbran, and chilli flakes in my pantry, yet for all my love of baking, I almost never have eggs in the house. Or, to be more precise, in Smurf Kitchen.
I’d like to think that this egg-dearth relates to the small part of me that longs to be vegan. Unfortunately, my wannabe-vegan side is currently being drowned out by the part of me obsessed with eating paté on toasted english muffins. Sigh.
Does anyone else see the eye of Sauron in one of the pine nuts here? How many people just revealed themselves to be super geeks? *raises hand*
Anyhoodle, the point of the previous digression is that I veganised my biscotti recipe by using ground flax mixed with water instead of an egg. However, I think this is what caused the biscotti to be really difficult to slice after its first baking. After having my first few thin slices barely hold together, I gave up and starting hacking hefty chunks off the loaf. I crossed my fingers and hoped everything would come up roses in the end. (‘Cause, remember, metaphorical roses always smell sweet.)
And you know what? It did. I quite liked that I ended up with stumpy-yet-hearty biscotti. In addition, I found a pile of cookie and pine-nut crumbles on the chopping board after my slicing extravaganza, which were happily eaten up while the biscotti slices succumbed to their second baking.
Nibble time!
Long story short? These sweetly-spiced, nutty biscotti nubbins of delight are rather dandy, either on their own or dipped into hot, strong, dark, black coffee for afternoon tea.
Come to think of it, would you like to come over for a cuppa? I’ll just pop the kettle on.
And this one looks like a elephant. (Now I want to watch Dumbo.)
Spiced Pine Nut Biscotti
- 1 tb flaxmeal mixed with 3 tb water (or one egg)
- 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
- 3/4 cup (110g) plain flour, sifted
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup (120g) pine nuts
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Whisk together the flaxmeal/egg and sugar in a large bowl, then stir in the flour, spices, and baking powder. Lastly, fold in the pine nuts. (Easy-peasy, right?) When the mixture has come together, divide dough in half.
- Shape each half into a log, and place one on each baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Let cool for 5 minutes, then slice into 1cm thick slices. Lower oven temperature to 140°.
- Arrange slices back on baking trays, then back for about 15 minutes, turning once halfway through. Honestly, just bake the biscotti until they reach your desired level of golden crispiness. Mmm, sweet nutty golden crispiness…
* Full disclosure: I really just wanted an excuse to say “thrice”.
** Shakespeare reference. In other words: WOOT.
*** Conor and Jess? I used a science-y symbol! A real, live science-y symbol. Aren’t you proud of me?
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting twist, not sure if the biscoti gods would approve but for the other billion souls addicted to biscoti…. nice one
I’ve never bothered about the biscotti gods before, so why start now?
These look delightful. I LOVE pine nuts.
I also never have eggs in the house…or milk (though I’ve started buying little long-life cartons to keep in the cupboard for if people come over and want tea or coffee). I’m obviously far from vegan (as demonstrated by the 5 types of cheese, 4 kinds of ice cream, and 3 open packages of butter currently in my possession. oh, and the bacon. The baaaccooonnnn…), but these things just don’t seem to feature highly in my life, other than for baking purposes, which sadly I don’t do enough of :\
But you do *other* things that are so much more exciting than baking. Like constructing prehistoric images out of frozen dinosaur shapes and broccoli. You’re my hero.
I am not surprised in the least at the Eye of Sauron being inside a pine nut. Alas, I’ve never been fond of pine nuts! Of course they’re associated with the dark lord! But then again, this could be the recipe that transforms my low regard of them into fondness – just like I hated coriander for years then a restaurant opened up here selling San Francisco Mission-style food (which I adore) and everything had coriander in it and suddenly I started not just tolerating coriander but actively seeking it out to put in things! That said, it probably has to be Mission/Mexican/Tex-Mex style food for me to like it. I have a sneaking suspicion I still hate it in Asian recipes.
Speaking of the Eye of Sauron, my friend is moving to London and had a going-away party and she had a blank book for everyone to sign and one of her new friends who she only met a couple of weeks ago drew the battle of the Hornburg/Helm’s Deep, since he had been watching The Two Towers when he had to tear himself away from it and go to this going-away party. Anyway, my friend showed it to me because she knew I’d appreciate it, so she was like “Oh my god he’s so cool, in a really nerdy, geeky way! You’ll love it!” and my immediate response was “He has labelled the Hornburg as a castle… it’s not a castle, it’s a fortress”. I don’t think that was the desired response. But I was a good girl and I bit my tongue about the fact that he had written the label “a shitload of orcs” when really it should have been “a shitload of Uruk-Hai”. So there’s some ultra-supergeekery for you.
Oh god a does-not-equal symbol! Even I’m not good enough to do that! (I just go with =/= because I’m lazy and inaccurate.) I’m so proud… *wipes away tears and mucus*
True story: I really dislike pine nuts too. (I can’t stand pesto because of the blighters.) However, I found myself with some pine nuts for various reasons, and decided to try my best to make them palatable. While I still don’t *love* them, I like the other flavours in this biscotti enough to find it tasty. The original recipe uses cashews, though, so feel free to use those instead
Also… heart you. LOTR geekiness FTW! (Even using those abbreviations signals my geekiness). Just the other month my brother was teasing me about how, back in high school, I studiously read every single appendix in every single LOTR book. Did I really need to know genealogies and all that good stuff? No. Was I dedicated? Yes. I recently rewatched the first two DVDs too, and, phwoar. Aragon is kinda attractive, isn’t he?
I think I started reading the appendices but then stopped when I got too sad (e.g. reading the dates of the deaths of people like Sam, Aragorn, Pippin, etc). I mean, I was emotionally traumatised when I read the book the first time and was depressed for like 2 weeks afterwards because I doubted I would ever have such an amazing literary experience ever again. When I re-read the book these days I still stop reading at the end of Aragorn’s coronation every time, because I can’t bear to read about the breaking of the Fellowship, Saruman messing up the Shire, the Grey Havens, etc.
But still, my yearning for ever more information led me to buy this back in February – http://tinyurl.com/2cghwzo – which I was going to take on the plane with me for my Toronto conference in March, but which ended up being simply too heavy to even imagine taking with me on a plane. It’s so nuts… so much annotation! So much detail! All right there while I read the story! Kind of overwhelming, really.
Aragorn is so rugged-but-kingly. He may be 80-something-years-old and probably smells hideously after sleeping in marshes and hanging out with horses and such, but he sure scrubs up well. Viggo Mortensen also makes me want to punch walls because of his accomplished-ness… master horse rider, artist, writer, musician, rugged-but-kingly-looking actor… DAMN YOU VIGGO MORTENSEN. You think you’re so good! And you pretty much are!
I can still recite Aragorn’s poem on command
(All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost…) When the movies first came out, a friend of mine became absolutely obsessed with Legolas. It was only years later that I was able to recognise, as my brother said, that he really does look like a girl. I also think that the Merry/Pippin commentaries are perhaps the most entertaining DVD commentaries ever.
My mother has an annotated Alice in Wonderland that I love… so tempted by yours now too! I love unabashed literary nerdiness
(I have about three different version of LOTR. High five?)
How come I never get to try these things? Oh, I know, you used wheat flour just so you wouldn’t have to share.
All part of my evil plan. Actually, the other day I brought some of these to your place for you, but then I remembered about the normal flour, and so ate them before you got home.
I’ll come over. <3
Oh, please do sometime!
We really have to start following through on our plans 
If you want empirical proof that biscotti are not cookies, they are two completely separate categories in my Google Reader. Plus, this is the first recipe I’ve ever tagged with the words “pine nuts.” So congratulations.
I feel honoured! And also duly corrected. I shall never again make this conflating-mistake again, and in future shall always check with your Google Reader for facts about everything
Including why the sky is blue.
OK that’s it! I’ll be over in a few hours
I looove pine nuts-the expensive little blighters!
I know, right?! All nuts are, though. Grrr.
And yes, please do visit one of these days! I might even bake something non-veganized in your honour
A depression years tip from my mother: 1 tblspoon golden syrup = 1 egg. (But I don’t know whether that means you can make the substitute for 1 of 2 or 3 eggs or use it when a recipe calls for just the 1 egg. Maybe in your experimenting you might find out and advise me. For my own part I prefer less sweetness in my cooking so never have tried it even if I have been short of eggs. I am more inclined to add an extra egg (always free range) to my recipes, especially if they are smallish eggs) – definitely not a vegan! But think of all that protein.
Hmm, that’s very interesting! So far the egg subsititions I’ve come across are flaxmeal, cornflour + water, mashed banana… never golden syrup! And, of course, none of these would help in the making of meringues, for example, or yesterday’s dessert…
Oh, and I have eggs now for the first time in weeks, thanks to you! (Mum gave me some of the free-range ones.)
Stumpy-yet-hearty just sounds so lovable, like that nice guy in the movie that is a bit funny to look at but you know he’s always going to totally come through for everyone. Even if it takes him a little while because he’s a bit short.
Also, that’s no elephant. That’s an anteater. Fact.
Also^2, I was very excited to see the ≠!!! Use of science-y symbols >> non-use of science-y symbols.
Don’t be hatin’ on the midgets, Conor. They good people.
Oooh, I think you’re right – anteater is closer than elephant. Honestly, though, I keep thinking there’s some sort of *other* animal that it look even more like, but I’m starting to think I’m imagining that other animal into existence.
I only have one addition to your equation:
Use of term “science-y” >> use of science-y symbols >> non-use of science-y symbols. ^389728432643
oh my – I need to make these ! I love that you added dround cardamom
I’m obsessed with it at the moment! Chucking it everything sweet
Mmm these looks great, lovely with a cup of chai I’m sure. Great to have another good vegan recipe up my sleeve – thanks for sharing!
Ooh what a fantastic idea! You’re right, chai would be perfect here because of the similar spices involved. I’ll have to try that instead of coffee next time!
Homemade biscotti, hey? – I’m very impressed. Biscotti is one of those things I fear making at home. I think I’m afraid I’ll make it and it will be too hard to even bite into. This looks delicious!
Heidi xo
p.s. Dumbo!!
Look out! Look out! Pink elephants on parade!
Ah, but that’s the miracle of biscotti! Even if something goes awry (which I’m sure it won’t) and it turns out too crispy for your teeth, simply keep dunking it in coffee/tea/hot chocolate until it’s the perfect texture for you!
I sometimes feel part of me wants to be vegan – the part that shudders at raw egg – but then the cheeselover takes over – yet I feel like some vegan recipes are always useful because you never know where life might take you.
But for some reason I like the idea of savoury biscotti because crunchy savoury biscuits seem right yet I don’t really fancy crunchy sweet biscuits or biscotti
As you can see from my blog (erm, liver at The Ottoman much?!) I’m all over the place with my diet “categorisation”, so I understand you completely! Particularly because blue cheese is so darn tasty
Have you got a good savoury biscotti recipe? I think I have a parmesan one somewhere…
Not only do these look like such a delightful twist on an old fave (ESPECIALLY for us coffee lovers!), but I commend you also for your use of “thrice” …an oft underappreciated word for sure, no?
Exactly! I’m so glad someone else shares my enthusiasm for old-school language
I’ve recently rediscovered my love for coffee, so treats like this certainly do go down well!
oh that looks amazing! great idea for biscotti!
Thanks! It was fun to experiment (and eat the results)
Is that the raw batter in the second pic? Mmm, I don’t think mine would make it to the oven
Are pine nuts a reasonable price in Australia? Or are they expensive (like the $16-20/lb. they are here) everywhere?
I always makes sure a goodly amount of batter remains in the bowl for a snack
And nope, pine nuts are definitely not a reasonable price here either! My brain is too tired to translate your money per pound into our price per kilo, but suffice to say… ridiculously expensive. I may or may not have pinched these from my parents when I was house-sitting
I think that would be roughly $40-45/kg? UGH!
How nice of your parents to have stocked pinch-able pine nuts for you!
Well done you, Maths Lady!
When I last looked at my local, I believe they were $56 a kilo. Just as well I don’t actually like them… (unfortunately most nuts are at least $30 a kilo. Sunflower seeds are cheap though?!)
I’m the opposite – I ALWAYS have eggs in the fridge. I actually feel a bit stressed if I have less than a dozen eggs sitting there!
That’s how I feel about chocolate! (I’m really not kidding. I have over twenty blocks of chocolate on my shelf at the moment, and I keep buying more.)
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