Chocolate Drizzled Walnut Biscotti

Twice baked:Twice as many eaten

Dark, firm, Italian? Yes please.

Good things come in pairs right? At least, that's what people say and we're not exactly short of some prime examples to back up this claim e.g. Peaches and cream, rhubarb and custard, spaghetti and meatballs, Ant and Dec, Miley Cyrus and restraining orders, so it must be true to some extent. You see, lately, two wonderful additions have be introduced to my (ridiculously unexciting) life. The first is Italian cooking, which I've been fanatical about since returning from travelling around Europe where the majority of time was spent in Italy:

a) eating a lot of pizza

b) avoiding the overwhelming numbers of selfie stick sellers (I don't want one!!!) 

The second addition is a return of an old friend - The Great British Bake-off! If you live in the UK you will probably know that this show is the baking equivalent of upper-class porn where 12 contestants compete to bake the most delicious treats to satisfy the taste buds (and dark urges) of judges; Mary Berry a.k.a. the queen of all that is culinary and Paul Hollywood a.k.a. the male judge. Now, if you watch the show, you'll also know that last week was biscuit week and when I saw that the Italian classic biscotti was the featured signature bake, I knew I had to get involved. So whilst I fired up the oven and began talking to the ironing board as if it were Sue Perkins, I also began devising how to create a twice-baked treat that was so guiltless you could eat twice as many and not feel bad. The result ended up being my chocolate drizzled walnut biscotti. 

By making a few tactical substitutions from the classic recipe, I managed to create a biscuit that requires no butter or oil and also won't spike your blood sugar to an unnatural peak. Oat flour, which has a much lower glycemic index and also contains a shed load more fibre than refined white flour is used for these crispy little biscotti and whilst that sounds like an ingredient that you might only be able to purchase at somewhere like Waitrose, do not fret. I always make my own oat flour by simply blending up oats in a food processor or blender which is not only very easy but also a lot cheaper this way - mini fist pumps. The butter in the classic recipe was subbed with unsweetened apple sauce, cutting the fat content virtually out of existence and whilst this stuff may be a little harder to find, you can also use that pureed apple sauce that's marketed for babies. I know, using baby food sounds gross (and i'm pretty sure that the Shepard's pie in a jar abomination is) but the ingredients of most baby purees is usually just 100% pureed fruit, which is basically the same as unsweetened apple sauce - don't knock it till you've tried it. As fat-free isn't necessarily what I was going for, I also used whole eggs (the yolk is GOOOOOOOD!!!) and chucked in some walnuts for added protein, good polyunsaturated fats and heart healthy amino acids. To top it all off a little dark chocolate also made an appearance because not only is it a great antioxidant source but also because it's chocolate and that alone is reason enough. 

I suggest enjoying these treats during a mid-morning coffee break or as a late post-dinner snack. All the sweet Italian joy with no guilt whatsoever, hopefully Mary Berry would be proud! Feast well friends and if you don't watch The Great British Bake Off, I cannot recommend it enough (just make sure you save some biscotti to eat whilst watching as this show will make you hungry even if you've just prior consumed an entire cow). It's on every Wednesday at 8:00 PM on BBC one and is also available on BBC I Player. 

#Marymarrymeplease

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups oat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup truvia (or other sweetener of choice e.g. brown sugar, coconut sugar, regular sugar)
2 medium eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2-3 tbsp dark chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 160-170 degrees Celsius.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl* and combine.

Stir in the apple sauce and sweetener until a thick/quite dry dough consistency is reached.

Add in the 2 eggs and combine - if the dough ends up being a bit too runny (more like cake batter) simply transfer to a floured worktop surface and roll about until it is able to hold its shape but is still very malleable**. 

Place onto a baking tray, lined with grease proof paper, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and form into a rounded rectangular shape around an inch or so thick.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing the rectangle diagonally into classic biscotti shapes. At this point the biscuits should still be relatively soft. 

Lie the biscotti out onto a baking tray and put back in the oven for around 20 minutes in order to crisp up. It's important to note that all ovens temperatures vary and depending on your preference of biscotti texture, this second baking time could be longer or shorter. Just monitor them and take them out when you think they're done to your liking. 

Allow to cool, melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and pipe, drizzle or dunk it over the biscotti in whichever way your heart desires.

*I am pretty old school (cheap) and just used a bowl, wooden spoon and a bit of grit to combine the ingredients but a stand or hand mixture with dough hook attachments would work perfectly well, if not better.

**You don't want the final dough too stiff e.g. like a shortbread texture, so try not to over flour it.