Cranberry-Flax Biscotti

Biscotti and coffee, the perfect combination

We’re training for our second marathon now (in June) and one thing you learn very quickly when running long distances is that if you aren’t fueling your body correctly, you’re not going to get very far. So we’re trying to eat more vegetables, get better carbohydrates (more whole grains) and have lots of water. We’re also trying to eat a healthy breakfast at least five days a week.

Our handheld breakfast frittatas are a key part of our fueling plan, but they’re almost all protein. We need some carbs in there too. So we went back to our old standby of biscotti. I love biscotti because much like the handheld frittatas, you can vary the recipe so many ways. We’ve done cornmeal biscotti, chocolate biscotti, and even kitchen sink biscotti. We’ve used dried apricots, sage, cherries, and pears. Hazelnuts, pecans, almonds, and cashews have all made an appearance. Today though, we’re all about the cranberries.

Full disclosure, these cranberries aren’t local. This fall, when cranberries return to the market, we’ll dry a bunch so that we can use them in this biscotti recipe. But for this recipe, we went to the store. Even though we have jars and jars of canned fruit from the summer, we don’t have any dried left, a fact that has me longing for spring in the worst way. But we do have local flours, both the hard red wheat from Nash’s and the Shephard’s Grain flour from Stone-Buhr.

Flax, though we haven’t found it locally, is one of those wonder foods that can up the health quotient of just about any baked treat. We’ve added it to breads and even to our tortillas. Flax is high in Omega 3 fatty acids, the same fatty acids as are found in salmon. Plus, I actually like the nutty flavor. Just a few tablespoons of flax meal really round out the flavor of these biscotti.

Cranberry-Flax Biscotti adapted from the Joy of Baking

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup Nash’s hard red wheat flour
• 2/3 cup white flour
• 3 Tbsp flax meal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries (or other dried chopped fruit)

1. Preheat the oven to 375.
   

   Extreme Biscotti Closeup

2. Beat the sugar and the eggs on medium-high speed for five minutes. The mixture should be a pale yellow and airy.
3. Add the vanilla and beat for another minute.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, flax, baking powder, and salt.
5. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and beat on low to combine.
6. Mix in the dried fruit.
7. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat, and with WET HANDS to prevent sticking, shape the dough into a mostly flat rectangle about 3.5 inches wide and 12 inches long.
8. Bake for 25 minutes or until you can touch a finger carefully to the biscotti and it feels firm.
9. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and turn the oven down to 325.
10. Using a bread knife (serrated), cut the log into individual biscotti, on a diagonal (1/4-1/2 inch width).
11. Transfer the cut biscotti back to the baking pan and crisp in the oven for 10 minutes.

Notes: Our old standby biscotti, of the cornmeal variety, were always a bit crumbly and messy to take with us in the car in the mornings. This version is a lot firmer. Of course, you can control how crunchy they get by adjusting the second baking time. Shorter for softer, chewier biscotti, and longer for crispier, crumblier biscotti. I like a middle ground. These are crispy enough to stand up to a dunking in coffee or hot chocolate, but soft enough not to break into a million crumbs when you bit into them. I love the dried cranberries, which are both sweet and tart at the same time. The little bite in the back of the tongue when you taste one of the little red morsels helps me wake up in the morning and the softness of the vanilla and flax ease me into my day.

Depending on how thick you make each biscotti, this recipe should make between 12 and 16 normal sized biscotti with two little snack sized portions from each end, perfect for tasting right out of the oven.