Spicy Autumn Tea Biscotti

Nov 012010

Remember when I told you that I love to make biscotti for my little ones? Rarely super sweet with relatively low sugar, nice and crunchy so it takes a little while for little ones to consume, and almost endless in flavor combinations,

They are the perfect cookie.

I made up these Spicy Autumn Biscotti for a bake sale recently and they went in a flash! Enriched with orange zest and juice and seasoned with spicy herbal tea, these sprouted wheat flour cookies are a sweet treat you won’t mind sharing with your little ones.

I made a version of these biscotti several years ago with Chai tea, but the recipe was quite dry and the biscotti didn’t hold together well. Since then, I’ve augmented it to coordinate with an herbal tea (though your favorite black tea blend would work beautifully as well!) and changed it to a whole grain, sprouted flour, I upped the fat and liquid just a bit as well added orange zest and juice for a bit more flavor. If you prefer to jazz them up a bit more, I’d consider lightly glazing or whipping across in little strings half of each biscotti with a mix of yogurt cream cheese, orange juice and powdered sugar (did you see Wardeh’s post on how to make more natural powdered sugar out of unrefined sugar?) until it is thin. These are perfect with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

I baked these with a mix of sprouted wheat flour and unbleached, all-purpose flour, as I was making them for others, but I encourage you to try them with 100% sprouted wheat or whole grain flour if you prefer! You may have to add a bit more liquid (either an extra egg or a bit more orange juice) to allow them to hold together if you use 100% wheat flour, but please let me know if you tried them in the comments!

Spicy Autumn Tea Biscotti

In a large bowl, sift together:

1-1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups organic, sprouted wheat flour
1 cup organic, unrefined cane sugar
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 Tablespoon herbal spice tea (if you use tea bags, it will be 2-3 bags; I used 2 bags of Bengal Spice)
1-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger

In a liquid measuring cup, combine:

2 Tablespoons coconut oil, in liquid form but not hot
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
the zest of one orange
1/4 cup fresh orange juice

Mix the liquid ingredients with the dry ingredients in the large bowl, stirring to combine. This will be a relatively dry dough and I find it works best if I knead the ingredients, with my hands, for two minutes or so to get adequate distribution and mixing.

Though I love using loose leaf teas, most of the herbal ones I buy are in bags . . . the Bengal Spice blend holds a little over a teaspoon each so two bags was perfect.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Split the dough in half and form two logs on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper, about four to six inches apart from each other and about 8 inches long, four or five inches wide and one inch tall. Make sure the log is equal without tapered ends.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once the first bake is done, remove from oven and transfer to a baking rack or even just paper towels off of the cookie sheet to cool for twenty minutes. I find I use my fish turner for baking and moving bread around on my baking stone a lot more than actually for fish, as evidenced by this picture! It was perfect for removing the loaves to cool!

Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once mostly cool, with a sharp, serrated knife, slice logs widthwise into biscotti, about an inch wide. If the loaf crumbles too much, allow to cool a little bit longer before trying again.

Arrange biscotti, one side down on parchment covered baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes before turning over and baking on the other side for 10 minutes.