Brownie Points Cooking & Recipes Blog

Ok… so these cookies aren’t exactly green like I pledged in my healthier eating post.

However these biscotti aren’t the baddies of the cookie world. They’re quite low in fat, and if one can restrain their serving size, they can be quite the healthy eater’s friend.

I made these last week for a hot chocolate party my labmates and I held during our usual Monday morning meeting. Nothing like liquid chocolate refreshment to inspire prompt attendance at a meeting.

Very crunchy and firm (these are primo for dunking!), these biscotti carry a wonderful light orange flavor that is both fruity and floral.

Candied Orange Peel Biscotti

In a saucepan combine:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• julienned orange peel from two oranges- no white stuff attached

Stir to help begin dissolving the sugar, then cover with a lid and let the heat do the rest of the work.

Bring the mixture to a boil and gently simmer for 20 minutes.

Let cool 10 minutes in the pan and spoon the orange zest into a strainer (chopsticks work very well too). Let the orange flavored sugar syrup drip back into the pan (save this for the biscotti batter), and move the strainer of zest to hover over a piece of wax paper. Spoon granulated sugar over the syrupy zest while fluffing the zest with chopsticks. Continue to sugar and fluff till the zest bits are adequately coated and not too clumped up. Spread out on a cutting board and chop into small pieces.

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup of flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Set this aside and combine in a mixer:

• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 2 Tbs of softened butter
• the syrup from candying the orange peel

Mix till the butter sugar combination is well incorporated. Then add while mixing:

• one whole egg
• one egg white (powdered egg whites work well)
• 1 Tbs vanilla
• the chopped candied orange peel

Scoop in the dry ingredients a bit at a time, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides and bottom once.

Using a spatula, scoop the batter out onto a silpat-ed cookie sheet. It will be sticky. Form the dough into a log using a spatula and lightly flour dusted fingers.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet half way through.

Remove and let cool. Using a serrated knife, slice 1/2 inch slices from the loaf, on a diagonal to ensure nice long slices. Lay the sliced cookies out on the cookie sheet and bake again at 200F for 30 minutes total (flip cookies over after 15 minutes) if hard cookies suitable for coffee dunking are desired.

Enjoy!

Links

• Bakingsheet: Nutella Biscotti
• Cream Puffs in Venice: Chocolate Toffee Biscotti
• Culinary in the Desert Country: Gingerbread Biscotti
• The Passionate Cook: Almond and Pink Peppercorn Cantucci
• Food Whore: It’s Just a Stale Cookie

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