There are small joys in life. Like listening to my daughter play by herself while making a milky cup of coffee in my warm home, on a cold, windy, rainy day. And dipping my delicious smelling hazelnut and pumpkin biscotti in my coffee.
Biscotti is an Italian delight, as the name suggests, and is also called cantuccini. It contains high amounts of sugar and flour. And also has a worldwide tradition of being consumed by dipping inside coffee. It is possible to find lots of flourless biscotti recipes but I found most of them absurd or misshapen. I have read lots of recipes and did not feel like making even one. Then, I made my own recipe. Which makes 12, requires very few ingredients and happens to be very delicious.
I have one word: really tasty.
The key point is to be gentle, as they tend to crumble since they contain no flour etc.
For the biscotti
1 egg
1 pinch of rock salt
1 tblspn honey or any other natural sweetener of choice
¼ cup of melted butter or coconut butter
1/2 tspn baking soda
1 cup hazelnut flour
1 medium sized slice of pumpkin (or ½ cup of pumpkin puree)
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn grape vinegar (homemade)
For the Chocolate Icing
¼ cup of tahini
1 tblspn cocoa
1 tsp honey
For the White Lemon Cream
1 small, baby banana
¼ cup kefir
1 tspn lemon juice
1-3 drops of vanilla extract
Instructions:
1-Set oven to 180C, slice the pumpkin and bake for 20 minutes.
2-Remove but don’t turn off your oven.
3-Puree the pumpkin in your food processor, set aside.
4-Mix egg and salt. Add honey, baking soda and butter, continue mixing for a few minutes. Add 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, hazelnut flour, cinnamon and vinegar, keep mixing until you end up with a thick cake batter.
5-Pour the batter in a silicone 8×20 cake mold, bake for 30 minutes or until the top turns golden.
6-To make the White Icing pulse the listed ingredients, to make the Chocolate Icing mix the listed ingredients.
7-Remove the cake, cool it and slice very carefully.
8-Set your oven to 180C, place a parchment paper on your baking sheet.
9-Carefully place the slices on parchment paper. Bake for an another 10 minutes. Remove, turn over the slices and bake for an another 10 minutes.
10-Remove the biscottis, cool. Drizzle them with your icing of choice and with the help of a fork. Serve. Enjoy.
