Strawberry Shortcake Biscotti

While I was sipping my coffee the other day, I was really in the mood for something sweet to pair with it. At this moment a documentary on Italy came on TV and a light bulb went off...I should make biscotti!

One hiccup, however, is that I have never made biscotti. So I was a little intimidated, as in my mind it seemed like this would be really advanced baking. But as it turns out, it really wasn't that difficult. Biscotti are basically twice-baked cookies, so while it does require a bit of patience, it isn't too different than making cookies. They just sit longer in the oven. So go ahead and give it a try!

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Strawberry Shortcake Biscotti Recipe
vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, refined sugar-free

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1/4 cup tapioca or arrowroot flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (can also substitute honey)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup fresh diced strawberries

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, then add in the maple syrup, vanilla, and water and mix to combine. 
3. Gently fold in the diced strawberries. 
4. Place the dough on the parchment lined baking sheet, wet hands if the dough is sticky and shape into a long rectangle that is about 1/2 inch high. (Make sure the width is not too wide because you will need to cut the long after the first round of baking, I just made sure it was not wider than the blade of the knife I used for cutting in the next step, although next time I will make a narrower log.)
5. Bake in oven for 20 min. Then remove and let cool, the longer you let it cool, the easier it will be to cut...I only waited 10 min, but wait at least 30 min, if possible :).
6. Once cooled, cut the log into about 1 in slices (see picture below).
7. Set oven to 250°C, and place the slices back on the baking sheet with the cut side down.
8. Bake 20 min, then flip and bake another 20 min.
9. At this point you can either turn off the oven and let the biscotti sit for another hour or two while the oven cools to become very crispy, or your patience has already been tested enough (like mine) and you take the biscotti out of the oven now and enjoy!