Gluten Free Biscotti
For years, my mom has been making these crunchy biscotti to serve with tea at our Passover Seder. She calls them mandelbread (or mandelbrot), but I’m sorry– they are so very biscotti to me. More nuts than flour, kissed with cinnamon and subtly sweet, they are the perfect antidote to those heavy, cloying storebought passover desserts that sit in your stomach like lead.
When I went gluten-free, so did my mom’s biscotti. When I became a dietitian, her biscotti went lower in sugar. Let’s hope neither of my children develops a nut allergy, or these lovely little cookies may not survive to see another Passover.
Enjoy these at your Seder, and make them again this around the December holidays as a gluten-free treat to enjoy with hot cocoa or coffee.
Gluten Free Biscotti (Kosher for Passover)
Adapted by my mom from Helen Nash’s Kosher Kitchen
Ingredients:
- 6 oz hazelnuts or pecans, chopped coarsely in food processor or by hand
- 6 oz shelled almonds, chopped coarsely
- 8 oz dark raisins
- 8 TBSP gluten free Passover cake meal, such as Yehuda brand (or year round: any gluten free all purpose flour blend; I like Bob's Red Mill 1 for 1 flour)
- 6 TBSP sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp powdered ginger
- 2 eggs lightly beaten (you might need a little more egg)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Grease 2 9×5 (or slightly smaller) loaf pans and dust with GF cake meal or flour
- In large bowl mix nuts, raisins, cake meal, sugar, spices.
- Add eggs and mix with wooden spoon. If mixture does not hold together, add a little more egg. Divide dough in half and put it in 2 pans.
- Press very firmly to pack it down. Bake side by side in oven, reduced to 300 degrees, for 1 hour.
- Cool, turn over pans and release the biscotti. Cut them into 1/4 inch slices, then place them on cookie sheets to dry out in 200 degree oven for 45 min. on each side.
- Cool completely before storing in airtight container.