Almond and Orange Biscotti – Vegan, Gluten-free

Almond and Orange Biscotti – Gluten-free and vegan

Delicious crunchy biscuits with toasted almonds and a touch of orange. I love biscotti on their own, but they are so versatile and seem to go perfectly with ice cream. Not sure why? Something about that crunch! They keep well and make lovely gifts, when nicely wrapped. Early Christmas presents!!?

I’ve been working on a gluten-free version for a while and I’ve cracked it! Sometimes recipes happen quickly and they’re great, sometimes they takes years to develop and seem to improve naturally each time, a tweak here, a few minutes more in the oven there. I love this biscotti base recipe and play around with the flavourings and nuts regularly. I like them spiced up of course, a little cinnamon and cardamom with the orange works really well. I recently made some coconut and lime biscotti, which whilst not being very Italian, went down a treat

I love recipes that tick many boxes like this one. Vegan. Tick. Gluten-free. Tick. Yum. Big tick. Because let’s face it, just because we’re baking gluten-free we still want awesome results. It’s a brilliant challenge and I don’t think anyone will tell the difference with these biscotti.

There’s a magic combo here of gram (chickpea) flour and corn flour which I use quite a bit in vegan baking. The cornflour really helps to bind things together and gram flour is just one of my favourite things. People can’t believe it when you tell them it’s got chickpeas in. The shock can lead to dropped biscuits! But just to confirm, when baked, gram flour has no chickpea flavour. No worries.

As with all my baking, I try to keep the sugar to a minimum. I do some ‘sugar-free’ baking, but generally I find that can mean substituting one sugar for another sugar (maybe in liquid form). I like coconut sugar, but I’m not a fan of it’s price tag. I try to use good quality brown sugar in baking. Mostly labeled as light brown sugar. Some cakes may not be as light, textures do change, but I rarely bake with white sugar.

Biscotti and a brew – Yes please!!

We’ve been talking soup over on the Facebook page, the autumn is settling in nicely up here in Snowdonia. A nice nip in the air and the nights are creeping in. The blackberries are going wild!

I know you can buy biscotti easily in the shops, but I find homemade is much more rewarding, and these are simple enough to get together.

If you try out the recipe, please let us know in the comments below, or just say a quick, ‘Hello!!’ We love hearing from you, especially when you’ve just eaten a warm biscotti!

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Recipe Notes

If you don’t have gram flour, you can use a gluten-free flour mix instead. Don’t substitute the polenta, it gives the biscotti a nice bite.

Like I said, use hazelnuts or cashews if you like and any citrus you fancy.

I mentioned in the recipe, but do keep your eye on the biscotti when you’re getting to the end of baking. There is a fine line between bang on and overdone with biscotti, I think it’s because we bake them for so long. If your oven is a strong, fan oven, maybe drop the heat 20oC when you go for the second bake.

Almond and Orange Biscotti – Vegan and Gluten-free

The Bits – For 24-ish

Dry

200g gram ﬂour

25g cornﬂour

75g polenta

1 ½ teas gluten-free baking powder

¼ teas salt

1 handful toasted almonds (roughly chopped)

Wet

125g coconut oil (melted)

150g light brown sugar

½ tbs well ground chia seeds (mixed with 3 tbs water)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs orange zest

Do It

Preheat fan oven to 180°C.

Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, and the dry ingredients in another bowl, then pour the wet into the dry and mix well with a spoon. Don’t worry about over stirring; this is gluten-free.

Line a baking tray / sheet with baking parchment. With wet hands form the dough into two even balls, then fashion into two long ﬂat sausages / logs. The biscotti will rise and spread out a little when baked, but not much.

Place the two logs / sausages onto the baking tray and into the oven for 30 minutes. Turn your tray 90o once if your oven is hotter at one end than the other.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly on the tray. When cool enough to handle, place the two sausages / logs on a chopping board and with a sharp knife cut into biscotti sized slices, roughly ¾ inch in width. Grab the baking tray and ﬂip the individual biscottis on their sides and bake again for 10 more minutes each side. Keep you’re eye on them after the last ﬂip so that they don’t burn. Once there are very crunchy place on a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy with ice cream or a nice coﬀee (or both!) We just had them with roasted peaches and coconut ice cream with raspberries on the side. Must take a picture next time.

Foodie Fact

Almonds not only taste amazing, they’re really good for us too. They’re high in anti-oxidants, which are in the skin, so try and eat almonds skin-on. They’re high in Vitamin E, and minerals like manganese and magnesium, plus plenty of fibre and good fats. Of course, they’re nuts! Loads of protein there.