Biscotti are one of those recipes that look super impressive to anyone who’s never made them. It’s kind of like chocolate bark or meringues. All super easy recipes but not that common. So when I bring a batch of biscotti to work I get a lot of ooh’s and ash’s even though they took me less than an hour to put together and I was watching re-runs of Judge Judy the whole time. You can imagine how thrilled I get when I figure out a way to make it even easier.
The best part about biscotti are the mix-ins. Pistachio, chocolate, lemon or hazelnuts…there are so many options. The trick is to find the right balance of flavors between sweet, crunchy and unexpected. I tried something new for my biscotti mix-ins this time and it came out great. If you know me, you know that I love Trader Joe’s. It’s filled with fun products, new ideas and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg (I’m looking at you, Whole Foods!). One of the products I like to get for work are trail mixes and they have a whole bunch to choose from. I was shopping for mix-in’s so I started grabbing a bag of dried cranberries, a bags of pistachios, some seeds and then it clicked when I saw the trail mix section. Why not use pre-made trail mix for my biscotti? 1- it’s easier 2- it’s cheaper 3- it works!
Here are all the ingredients you’ll need for biscotti. Not a ton and I usually have them all on hand. You gotta love old recipes.
And here is the star ingredient. For this round I used the Omega Trek Mix. It’s got cranberries, pumpkin seeds, pecans and walnuts. I added extra almonds because I love more crunch but looking back I could have skipped them. Whatever ratio of mix-in’s you want to go for, make sure to keep at 2 cups total.
The dough comes together really fast. In a bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. In a large bowl, mix oil, sugar, extracts and eggs until combined. Then slowly stir in your flour mix. It gets thick and sticky pretty fast but keep going and tell yourself it’s like an arm workout. Yes, you can now skip the gym. Yes, you can tell them I told you so. Form your sticky dough into 2 flat logs and bake at 300 degrees for 35 minutes. You want some nice color.
Take them out of the oven and let them cool down while you reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees. Now that they’re baked, the next step is to dry them out. After about 10 minutes, slice your logs into biscotti about 3/4 inch thick, lay them on one side and stick them back in the oven for 10 minutes or so. Take them out, flip them to the other side and back in the oven for another 10 minutes. That’s it!
Here is the full recipe. Enjoy!
- 1¾ cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 eggs
- 1½ cups Omega Trek Mix
- ½ cup almonds
- Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt until combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, eggs and extracts until fully combined.Slowly stir in flour mix until combined. The dough will be thick and sticky.
- Add dried fruit mix and almonds. Mix in until evenly distributed into the dough.
- Divide the dough and form 2 logs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If your dough is too sticky, wet your hands with cold water.
- Bake at 300 degrees for about 30-40 minutes or until the dough starts to turn golden brown. Take out and let it cool. In the meantime, reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees.
- With a serrated knife, slice each log into ¾-inch thick biscotti. Lay them back on the baking sheet on their side. Bake for 10 minutes. Flip the biscotti and bake on the other side for another 10 minutes.
Yay! You’re back 😀