Paleo Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Biscotti
I thought I would make biscotti since it’s one of those things I’ve never liked. I’ve never made it and I’ve only had ever had in a restaurant served with coffee. I’ve never liked it because it was so hard and crunchy and flavorless. The best dessert to make is one you don’t like (and therefore won’t eat). Right?
Surely I would hate this
I couldn’t have been more wrong. I loved this and wanted to eat it all. In one sitting. Without sharing. After the first stage of baking (during the slicing part…see below), I tasted it. It’s still soft at this point and was like the best ever ooey gooey chocolate chip cookies. I wanted to stop right there, call them done and eat them. I will be making a chocolate chip cookie bar using this same dough because it was so good.
So how did I go about making biscotti when I’ve never made it before? I googled a few recipes (non-paleo, traditional ones) to get an idea of the various ways biscotti was made. I settled on adapting this one from Food.com. I adapted it the way I do for most of my baking; a little less fluid to make way for the honey, less honey than sugar, some almond flour etc… And then I taste along the way and add stuff if I feel the texture is off. In this recipe, for example, I ended up adding in 1/2 cup more almond flour and 1 extra Tablespoon of arrowroot powder than I originally planned in order to achieve the texture I was looking for. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t. The baking gods were with me on this one and I got really lucky!
Great with coffee
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup honey
- juice from half an orange
- zest from half an orange
- 1/4 cup hazelnuts (or nuts of your choice), chopped
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate
- Extra dark chocolate for melting if you want to dip the ends
Instructions
- Put the almond flour, arrowroot flour, baking soda and salt together in a food processor and pulse to mix.
- Add the egg, honey and orange juice and pulse again to mix.
- Remove to a batter to a bowl and stir in the chopped nuts (I put mine in a plastic zip lock and smashed them a bit with a meat mallet because they were too hard to chop), chocolate and orange zest.
Mix it all together
- The dough is very sticky, so get your hands wet and the dough won’t stick to you. Grab the dough up and place it onto a parchment lined baking sheet and form it into a log.
The biscotti log
- Place in a pre-heated 300 F (150 C) oven for 25 minutes.
- Remove to cool completely.
- Once cool, slice on the diagonal with a knife.
At this point, I wanted to stop and eat it all
- Place cut side down on a parchment lined baking sheet and place back in the oven at a lower temperature. The oven should now be 250 F (120 C).
- Bake for 12-15 minutes and then flip over and cook on the other side for 12-15 minutes.
Baking again in slices
- If you like, you can melt some dark chocolate and dip the ends of your biscotti once it has cooled.
Chocolate dipped
- Now call me and invite me over for coffee.
Call me and we’ll do coffee
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 2 tablespoons arrowroot flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup honey
- juice from half an orange
- zest from half an orange
- 1/4 cup hazelnuts (or nuts of your choice), chopped
- 1/4 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate
- Extra dark chocolate for melting if you want to dip the ends
Instructions
- Put the almond flour, arrowroot flour, baking soda and salt together in a food processor and pulse to mix.
- Add the egg, honey and orange juice and pulse again to mix.
- Remove to a batter to a bowl and stir in the chopped nuts (I put mine in a plastic zip lock and smashed them a bit with a meat mallet because they were too hard to chop), chocolate and orange zest.
- The dough is very sticky, so get your hands wet and the dough won't stick to you. Grab the dough up and place it onto a parchment lined baking sheet and form it into a log.
- Place in a pre-heated 300 F (150 C) oven for 25 minutes.
- Remove to cool completely.
- Once cool, slice on the diagonal with a knife.
- Place cut side down on a parchment lined baking sheet and place back in the oven at a lower temperature. The oven should now be 250 F (120 C).
- Bake for 12-15 minutes and then flip over and cook on the other side for 12-15 minutes.
- If you like, you can melt some dark chocolate and dip the ends of your biscotti once it has cooled.
- Now call me and invite me over for coffee.
Notes
You could use any type of nut you choose. I think pistachios would be good.
12 Comments
Featured On
Follow Us!
Yummy! Looks good! Definitely making this tomorrow.
Hi June,
I hope you like it as much as I did 🙂 I think I’m making it again next weekend for a party I’m going to (that way I am safe and HAVE to share rather than eating it all myself!).
These look tremendous! I don’t want to be left alone with an entire batch, so… time for a block party. ;D Thank you for sharing this.
Yes, they are dangerous if you are alone with them. I think my husband and I polished off the entire batch in 3 days. No, we did not share. In fact, he’s lucky that he even got any 🙂
Yikes. These look way too good! So good in fact, I’m not even sure that I should make them… I’m afraid I too, would polish them off in no time at all. And the problem is, I don’t have a husband that I could share them with… which means I’d have to eat the whole batch to myself. Risky business! 😉
Hi Sonia! That’s pretty much how I feel about ALL treats. They are dangerous and left to my own devices, I would eat them all by myself until they were gone. I often times call a friend before I even cook to say that I’m going to cook and will be bringing what I make over to them…then I’m committed to sharing 🙂
Haha! That’s a GREAT idea! I think I’ll start doing that, too! 🙂
I used this as a base for delicious Coconut Cashew Biscotti!
http://chemgalcooks.blogspot.com/2014/02/grain-free-low-carb-paleo-coconut.html
Hi Samantha,
Those coconutty cashews sound delicious 😉 I can just imagine how good they must be in biscotti!!
Hi Lisa, while paleo is new to me, I wanted to ask you how long your biscotti may be stored…. thanks
Hi Anita,
I honestly am not sure how long you could store these…we ate them to fast 🙂 I’m guessing about a week and I think they would also freeze well.
Thank you very much – these biscotti are just delicious.
I’m in Spain at the moment and wanted to surprise my beloved ones back home by mailing some traditional spanish sweets. Since my mum and me are on a paleo-diet I felt like baking something for her as well. That’s when I came across your blog and this recipe. Easy to prepare – it takes no time at all and as I mentioned before “just delicious”!