It’s been a little while since I baked something with the help of my little sous chef, so this morning we got to work and tried making some healthy, wholewheat, low-sugar biscotti.  First things first, we gathered our ingredients:  wholewheat flour, raw almonds, organic dried cranberries, baking powder, sea salt, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, pure lemon extract, and eggs.

Then it was on to our dry ingredients.  As always, I measured and Miss G dumped.  Her aim is not always spot on, but boy, oh boy, does she ever love this part.  In with the flour.

Add the baking powder and sea salt.

Chuck in your almonds.

And your cranberries.

Next, on to the wet ingredients.  Crack your eggs and pour them into a separate bowl.

Add the maple syrup, vanilla, and lemon extract.

And give it a good whisk.

Now for the combining.  FIrst, give your dry ingredients a little mix.

Then slowly add your wet ingredients into the dry ones.

Mix just until combined and scrape your attachment clean.

Plop the sticky dough onto a parchment-lined pan.

With very well-floured hands, gently pat your dough into a rectangular shape about 1 inch thick.

Then pop it into the oven and bake.

While you wait, clean up and then have a tea party.

Or play with a tray of ocean items.

When risen and golden brown, take your loaf out of the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes.

Once cooled, carefully cut into thick slices.

Place the slices back onto your pan, pop it in the oven, and go for a walk around the block.

Come home to a delicious smelling house and fully baked biscotti.

Enjoy!

These actually turned out really well and got the Gracen stamp of approval in the form of a sign for ‘More, more, more!’  Ours have just a tiny bit of sweetness and a good crunch without being rock hard.  If you want to try making your own, the original recipe can be found here and this is our modified version:

Cranberry Almond Biscotti

• 1 1/4 cup of wholewheat flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp of sea salt
• 1/2 cup of chopped almonds
• 1/4 of dried organic cranberries, chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 2 TBSP of pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp of pure vanilla
• 1/2 tsp of pure lemon extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix together flour, baking powder, and sea salt. Stir in the nuts and fruit.

Whisk together the eggs and extracts. Slowly add to flour mixture, stirring until combined.

With floured hands, shape dough into a rectangular loaf about 1 inch thick on the parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for about 25 minutes until the loaf is risen and firm. Remove the loaf from the oven and reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Let the loaf cool about 10 minutes on a cutting board, then cut into thick slices.

Arrange slices cut-side down and bake 10 minutes.  Turn the slices over and bake for 10 more minutes, until dried.  Let cool on wire rack.  Enjoy!

*Grae and I cooked our slices for the first 10 minutes, flipped them, turned the oven off completely and let them sit in the cooling oven as we went out for a 45 minute walk, and ours turned out perfectly!