Ingredients

  • 290g gluten-free flour
  • 250g sugar (soft light brown, golden caster, or white caster)
  • 2 heaped tsp gluten-free baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp each of two ground spices (see footnote)
  • 3 large eggs, beaten
  • 175g chopped nuts (see footnote)
  • 200g dried fruit (see footnote)
  • grated zest of 1/2 lemon, or 1/2 small orange

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180 C (165 C fan-assisted).
  2. Line two baking trays with parchment. Fold a centre pleat about 2″ high in the paper, standing up lengthways, for one tray.
  3. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and spices to a large bowl and mix with a fork.
  4. Add the beaten egg to the dry ingredients about 1/4 at a time, stirring reallythoroughly between. You want a fairly wet dough but not a sloppy one – you may not use all the egg.
  5. Add the nuts, dried fruit, and zest, and mix until evenly distributed.
  6. Dampen your hands, take half the mixture, and quickly form a long log shape. Lay it in one side of the tray prepared with the pleat. Re-wet your hands and repeat for the rest of the mixture. Lightly dampen your hands again, and shape each log evenly and thinly on each side of the tray. (The mixture will spread out. The pleat is to keep the two logs from joining in the middle).
  7. Bake 30 to 35 minutes until firm and lightly browned. The centre of each log should not give to the touch.
  8. Remove the tray from the oven, and lift the baking parchment off the tray onto a cooling rack. Cool around 20 minutes, then peel each log off the parchment and move to a chopping surface.
  9. Slice each log, slightly at an angle, into 3/4″ wide slices. Use the knife slowly and carefully, and angle the knife up and down at each end to avoid bits of the ends crumbling off.
  10. Lay each slice cut-side up on the original tray (pleat flattened out), and on the second prepared tray.
  11. Return to the oven for around 8 minutes, then turn each slice over, then back again for 10 minutes or slightly more. You want them browned, but not too dark. They won’t be ultra-crispy yet so don’t wait for that to happen in the oven.
  12. Once out of the oven, let the biscotti cool on the baking trays. They will keep in an airtight container up to a week.

Nuts
Almonds are the traditional biscotti nut. But macadamia nuts are excellent; they’re tasty but also softer, and make slicing the 1st bake much easier. (If you use almonds, don’t add them whole unless you have a really sharp serrated knife). Pistachios, brazil nuts, and hazlenuts are also commonly used. Try a 3/4 mix of [white] nuts with 1/4 of pumpkin seeds for colour.

Fruit
Most dried fruits are suitable – dates, raisins, sultanas, cranberries, apricots, cherries, you name it. Use one, or two, or more to your taste. Classic combinations are cranberry & macadamia, apricot & pistachio, and date & almond.