Healthy Biscotti

[BakerAunt]

I've had biscotti on my mind. So many of my recipes are butter-based. For healthier ones, I have the pumpkin biscotti recipe that Skeptic posted, and I baked another one posted here at Nebraska Kitchen last year, although my husband complained about the anise. I also made a great Cardamom-Tahini biscotti last year that my husband didn't particularly like, although I noted he WAS eating a few. I now have the new Apricot Almond Biscotti that I baked last year. These recipes use healthy fats rather than butter.

I was checking the King Arthur Cookie Companion and found an entire section on biscotti. It distinguishes between "Italian" and "American" biscotti. It gives a variety of recipes that can be used with each basic dough. None of the "Italian" included a fat other than what is in eggs (although there was a propensity to include saturated fat in the form of chocolate or other chips). Has anyone tried these "Italian" style biscotti? My thinking is that the right kind of fat, in addition to what is in the eggs, would make a tastier, and perhaps more healthy, biscotti.

I have adapted a ginger-pistachio biscotti recipe from Bon Appetit to use canola oil rather than butter and liked it. I'm considering doing so with some of my other butter-based biscotti.

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[skeptic7]

I've tried the Italian Biscotti. As a cookie they are drier and more crumbly than American Biscotti. If you make them, only add a small amount of nuts or chocolate chips or dried fruit to the batter it isn't as forgiving with add ins and the dough might not stick together.
Also look up mandelbrot recipes, these are Jewish biscotti recipes and made with oil instead of butter. I've made some mandelbrot and I normally seperate the eggs. I beat the egg whites until fluffy with half the sugar, then I beat the egg yolks with sugar and slowly beat in the oil. I then combine all the rest of dry ingredients together. I stir the flour into the eggs in three parts, followed by 1/3 of the egg white mixture. This is a rather elaborate process but beating the air into the egg whites and egg yolks makes the mandelbrot lighter.
I think I posted all my low fat biscotti recipes here.

[BakerAunt]

In the end, I like my biscotti with some oil. So, I will skip the KAF ones. I will be trying some oil substitutions in some of my butter biscotti recipes.

[skeptic7]

Baker Aunt;
Good luck with your biscotti.

[Mike Nolan]

Biscotti always seem too dry to be enjoyable. We don't drink coffee, and tea isn't really a drink you dunk things in.

[BakerAunt]

I'm not a cookie dunker--biscotti or any other type. I will eat cookies with coffee or tea. I prefer coffee with cookies where chocolate is involved. I miss shortbread and buttery sugar cookies, so I need a cookie that will work in its place and be lower in saturated fat. I've got a few, but I hope to continue expanding my repertoire.

[Mike Nolan]

A few years ago I made Ossi Dei Morti cookies for All Souls Day, they're similar to biscotti. They were interesting and are low fat, no oil or butter, just 2 eggs.

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