Monday, January 7, 2008

Cashew Raisin Biscotti

Today i was planning to make cookies. So just kept the butter outside and was getting ready to make cookies. Suddenly Biscotti came into my mind. So just went ahead and search for few recipes. Got the good one. Then again i was not able to make final decision whether to make cookies or biscotti. Because i don't like Indian Rusks. But finally decided to try biscotti thinking if its not coming good then i can make cookies. You know what after making first batch i was very satisfied with the taste of this biscotti. So went ahead and made 2 more batches and stored it. And one more good news. it will stay good for more than 2 weeks. Just store it in air tight container or zip lock.


You will need:

  • 1½ cup All purpose flour
  • ¾ tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • pinch of baking soda
  • pinch of nutmeg powder(optional)
  • 2 Eggs
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla essence(can reduce to 1 tsp also)
  • ¾ cup raisins (can go for dry cranberry, dry cherry too)
  • ¾ cup roasted nuts( almonds. pistachio, cashew) i made with the mixture of three nuts.
Step 1:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Step 2:

Preparing Dry Ingredients:

Take a big bowl,sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Keep it aside.

Step 3:

Preparing wet ingredients:

Take a mixing bowl add eggs and sugar and mix it well with an electric mixer high for minimum 5 minutes. Now add vanilla essence and nutmeg powder.
Step 4:

Now mix the dry mixture into the wet mixture little by little and continue to mix it with the electric beater.After adding the flour mixture, take a spatula and mix it for few more minutes, just to make sure the flour is mixed well with the wet ingredients.

Step 5:

Now with the help of spatula just fold in the raisins and nuts.

Step 6:

Butter the cookie sheet and pour the mixture into it as shown in pic below. Pat to 1 inch thickness.



Step 7:

Bake it for 20 minutes. Take the biscotti from the oven and let it cool for 10 mins. Please dont turn off the oven.

Step 8:

Cut the biscotti into ½ inch thickness diagonally. Bake them for 5 minutes with cut side down, remove and turn the cookies to other side and bake again for another 5 minutes. Switch off, remove and cool completely.


This will be crispy and crunchy. Specially we can take out for picnic or outing.

Can you believe that this biscotti doesn't have butter in it. Even without butter it taste wonderful. Give it a try and let me know how it came out for you!!!!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good one!!

Unknown said...

Thanks mullai. Tried this recipe and it worked out http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=226434

Anonymous said...

Hi Vijitha, I love your blog...Different kinds of receipes...Keep it up. BTW, i don't have electric mixer and so...can i mix it using hand or what...help me pa - hope u remember SIO friend - Shan

Unknown said...

Hi Shan, I remember you.. You cant whisk the eggs using hands. If you have a egg whisk, that will work fine. If not you can use a long spoon to beat the eggs. But it will take minimum 10 to 15 mins to whisk the eggs using whisk/spoon. Using hand mixer it will take less than a min.After whisking the eggs you can use hand to mix the biscotti mixture.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much viji...I''m abt to do today. Yeah, i'm having egg whisk. Will it turn hard when using the hand to mix the flour...Also one more doubt, do we need to preheat the oven ? B'coz y'day only i bought oven so, no idea abt oven and purely new in baking. The brand is black & Decker. Also this weekend i'm going to try s.berry nut cake (replacing banana b'coz i don't like fruits except apples and oranges, i don't like to eat s.berry but i like the flavour of s.berry) can i use extract instead vanilla essence ? Sorry for asking sooooo many silly questions...-shan

Unknown said...

Shan, You are always welcome. Whisk is good. Better to use spoon to mix the flour. When i don't have electric mixer, i use egg whisk to whisk the eggs and spoon to mix the flour. Finally i use hands to mix the flour very well. It turned out soft only. You are in US right. Here in our home we have oven beneath the gas stove. Black and decker is very good brand and i'm very sure it will turn out good. You can replace strawberry/banana with apples too. Vanilla extract and essence is same. You can use that.. Hope i cleared your doubts..

Anonymous said...

Viji, really thanx for ur reply. Bye will get you back with the outcome

Unknown said...

Ok Shan.. One more thing .. Preheat the oven whenever you work with oven..

Anonymous said...

Hi viji,
Just happened to c ur blog...awesome...gonna try ur recipes one by one...im an SIO member...love ur cake recipes thr....
Ramya Ashok

Unknown said...

Hi Ramya, Thanks for leaving comment.Very glad to hear positive comment from u.. I love baking. So you can find many baking recipes in my blog.. Try it and let me know how it turned out for u..