Cranberry Oat Biscotti

     Today I decided to bake something that I used to bake when I was in Singapore: biscotti. I think it has been almost 2 years since I have baked biscotti. Biscotti is a twice-baked biscuit that originated in Italy. It's lesser known name is cantuccini. There is also a Jewish version of this called mandelbrodt. While biscotti is often made with many variations such as pistachio, aniseed, almond & chocolate, mandelbrodt is traditionally made with almonds (because 'mandel' means almond in Yiddish). 

     Biscotti is easy to make but it does require more time because of the slicing and double-baking. It is certainly so easy that it makes no sense to pay something like $2 for a piece of biscotto (singular form of the word) in a cafe. I reckon you can make the entire biscotti recipe below with $2. And you will get 48 pieces for that! AND my biscotti are low in fat. They are definitely suitable for people who like a cookie with their coffee but want to watch what they eat. Each biscotti is a very reasonable 52 calories. I will provide the full nutritional values after the recipe.

       I added a little wholewheat flour and some of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf's White Chocolate Powder because I have a jar of it at home that will expire soon. You can choose to leave this out or substitute with powdered milk and sugar. The most difficult part is forming the batter into log-shapes. I halved the recipe when I made it, so feel free to do so BUT you will have to deal with weird amounts like 1½ egg!

You CAN bake these

Cranberry Oat Biscotti

makes 48 pieces

2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup wholewheat flour

1/2 oats (rolled or quick)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom (substitute with cinnamon)

3/4 cup white sugar

3 eggs 

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 TBSP white chocolate powder (optional)

or 

4 TBSP powdered milk + 2 tsp sugar

100g dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Line a big baking sheet with greased baking paper.

2. Whisk flours, oats, baking powder/soda, salt and spices together in a bowl.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar for 2 minutes until smooth and light.

4. Add vanilla extract and white chocolate powder to the egg mixture and whisk to combine.

5. Now add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until well-combined. Stir in the cranberries.

*The mixture will be a thick batter, not a dough.

6. Drop ¼ of the batter by large spoonfuls side-by-side onto the baking sheet, then use a spatula and spoon to form into a log shape. Repeat with the remaining batter. You should have four logs, making sure there is enough room to accommodate for spreading

Make sure there is enough space for spreading.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until the logs are lightly browned.

8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 150°C

9. Using a serrated knife, slice the logs into halves first then slice each half into 1/2 inch-thick slices.

*Some people say don't use a sawing motion to slice, but I did.

Sliced and ready for second round of baking

10. Lay the sliced pieces on their sides in a single layer on baking sheet

11. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, then remove from the oven.

12. Flip the slices over and bake again for about 10 minutes.

13. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Your biscotti is now ready to enjoy with your coffee as a healthy alternative to a cookie!

Nutritional values per biscotto:

52 calories

Fat 0.6g, Saturated fat 0.3g, Carbohydrates 10.9g, Sugars 5.2g,

Fiber 0.4g, Protein1.2g

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Muffins

     So what do you do when a bad dream awakens you at 5:30am and you have a bar of dark chocolate that's not very nice for eating on its own? Me...I bake. I've recently returned from a vacation in Spain and bought a bar of sugar-free dark chocolate to take home with me. Something about that chocolate made me put it down when I started eating it, and that doesn't happen very often. However, it wasn't so bad that it had to go in the bin right away. I decided I could use it for baking. However, if you are making this recipe at home, regular dark chocolate would be perfect.
   
     The Spanish seem to have some sort of love-affair with sugar-free chocolate. The most prominent Spanish chocolatier Valor sells sugar-free versions of many of its chocolate. Even Nestle, which doesn't make very nice chocolate in my opinion, rolls out its own sugar-free milk chocolate in Spain. 

Furthermore, the sugar-free chocolate is always kept on the supermarket shelves right next to the regular chocolates, not in a separate aisle or shelf for special dietary needs like in most other countries.

     So anyway, having been awoken from my sleep, I did a quick search for recipes. I knew I wanted to bake something that would use that sugar-free chocolate up and I knew I wanted to add oats in it too. I found recipes for oatmeal cakes, oatmeal cookies and the like. I didn't have butter on hand, so cookies were out of the question. I ended up basing my muffins on a  recipe for chocolate chip muffins which I tried a month ago. I adapted it to suit myself and it worked out well.

     The oatmeal gives the muffins a nice 'bite' and a crispy top. The addition of cinnamon complements the oatmeal nicely. On hindsight, some desiccated coconut would have given the muffins a more irresistible allure. In future, I will add 2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut to the batter. This is a simple recipe that is quick to make, especially if you use chocolate chips.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Muffins

makes 12 regular or 16 smaller muffins

175g plain flour

75g rolled oats

110g caster sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

85ml vegetable oil (1/3 cup plus 2 tsps)

180ml milk (approx 3/4 cup)

1 large egg

85g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks

(or semisweet chocolate chips)

2 TBSP desiccated coconut (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease the bottoms of 12 muffin cases.

2. Put all dry ingredients except chocolate & coconut in a medium-sized bowl and whisk to combine.

3. In a smaller bowl, combine all the wet ingredients

4. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients

5. Whisk the batter till well-mixed

6. Finally, reserve a small handful of the chocolate then stir the remaining chocolate and coconut (if using) into the batter.

7. Fill each muffin case 2/3 full and scatter some chocolate chunks on the top.

8. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. 

Don't overbake or the muffins will become a little tough.

LEAVE TO COOL FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES THEN DEVOUR!