A festive variation on our biscotti recipe!
Gorgeous Joanna of Zeb Bakes sent me a bottle of Aroma Panettone, a new product from Bakery Bits. It was perfect in this recipe, although orange extract or orange blossom water (acqua fior d’arancio) would probably work as well (please adjust quantities accordingly).
I followed the methodology in our previous post, using the following ingredients:
- 2½ cups (375g) plain (AP) flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt (preferably sea salt)
- ½ teaspoon Aroma Panettone
- 1 cup (220g) white sugar
- 3 large (59g) eggs
- 1 cup (140g) coarsely chopped nuts (I used slivered almonds)
- ½ cup (100g) dark Belgian chocolate (Callebaut 70%)
- ½ cup mixed chopped glacé fruit (I used red and green cherries, figs and cedro)
- 1 egg, beaten, for eggwash
- demerara or crystallised sugar
Here are the logs after the first bake, ready for slicing…
…and the finished biscotti. They’ll make a wonderful addition to our Christmas mini-hampers!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
What a wonderful delicious biscotti….yes,I’m going to have to make these…Thanks xx
Thanks Yvette! I’m sure you’d have access to some wonderful essences over there! :)
These look wonderful, Celia. I’m still thinking about making your biscotti – you’re making the decision about which to make even more difficult! I think I’ll have to use your basic recipe with my own additions, although the red and green here looks very festive.
Suelle, looking forward to seeing what you come up with! It’s a wonderfully adaptable recipe…
I like the look of those! They look really Christmassy – a little Italian aroma in Sydney in mid summer – love it x
Thanks for the mention!
Thank you for the essence! It’s been fun to play with. It’s really strong too, so a little goes a long way!
You know my real problem with traditional fruitcake? No crunch! And you know I’m all about the crunch. So it looks as if you’ve solved a dilemma for me. Now I have to decide if I want to dunk these in coffee or rum.
Mark, if you lived next door, you and I would just spend our days eating biscotti. I think there’s all sorts of possibilities – my last visit to Harkola produced glace kiwi fruit and glace orange rind strips. Thinking about working them into my next batch..
Making dark chocolate and almond cranberry biscotti from your recipes, today- I’ll post some pictures on my blog later.
Thanks for sharing your recipes, Celia!
Oooh, Heidi, thank you for trying the recipe. Hope you like it! :)
They look and sound delish. One of your biscotti with a very strong coffee would go down really well right now. I have spent the night in the tent in our backyard with 14 eight year old girls having a sleep over party for Tara’s birthday. All I will say about this joy is that some children should come with warning labels! Coffeeee pleeeease…. And biscotti?!
I love the idea of aroma pannetone.
Ugh…I thought about you last night – did you survive? Lucky it didn’t storm. Hope Tara had a wonderful time!
Delicious.
Reminds me of the almond biscotti I ate before losing my memory after drinking too much Vin Santo in Tuscany one summer’s evening. The hard biscuits need to be dunked in the alcohol until soft enough to eat. That little Italian trick was my downfall.
Hehe..the Vin Santo will get you every time, Peter. Even if you are having it with food.. ;-)
Celia, that is genius! My attempts at making pannettone have not been successful but all will be forgiven when I present these up. Thanks!
Sue, thank you, hope you enjoy them! They’re such fun to make, I’m a bit hooked (as you can tell). :)
Isn’t Joanna lovely – a lovely gift. I’ve just ordered the Fiori di Sicilia from Bakery Bits – one for me and one for a friend. Your biscotti look very festive and I’m sure taste delicious too. You have such creative ideas.
Yes, she is absolutely lovely! Look forward to seeing what you do with the Fiori di Sicilia!
I would never have thought of that mixture, what a great idea! The colours look very festive and I bet one whiff of that gorgeous scent will have people hooked!
Do you suppose that if I just sniff Aroma of Panettone instead of face planting myself into a tray of that glorious looking stuff I will lose weight?
I was thinking of a new range of food based perfumes, and dabbing this behind my left ear Jan!
How funny, I was just thinking the other day about that stuff instead of using alcohol in the biscotti :-) There is nothing I like better than panettone, and if there is an easier way to make it and it comes out like a biscotti, even better!
(You make me want to head back into the kitchen, where I vowed to stay out of this afternoon ;-)
Yum!
Chef R, I wish I could get some to you, the aroma really does smell exactly like panettone!
Jan, there are no calories at Christmas-time..hahaha. Actually, I’ve been telling myself biscotti aren’t too bad – one cup of sugar, flour, no butter, fruit and nuts (ok, and chocolate too) result in about 60 biscotti. Unfortunately all that rationalising comes undone when I eat ten of them at once. ;-)
Debra, thank you! :)
Ohhh Celia, my kitchen smells wonderful & the biscotti is fabulous ~ I think I might try Fig & Hazelnut for my Christmas giving. Thank you for the idea and your Spiced Nuts have been a big hit!
Mmmm…looks luscious.
Lee, thank you! :)
Suz, I’m so happy to hear that, thanks for letting me know! Fig and Hazelnut sounds like a wonderful combination! I love the spiced nuts, will need to make more this Christmas, thanks for the reminder.. :)
These look really, really festive, Celia! Do you freeze them or give them away straight away?
Chris, I find the biscotti freeze really well, so I’ve stashed a heap in the freezer. They seem to defrost with absolutely no loss of quality whatsoever. I think it helps to make sure they’re quite dry before they’re frozen though.
I am intrigued by the cedro – I keep seeing it at the Say Cheese shop in the Adelaide Central Market but had never ventured to buy any. Lovely Xmasy looking biscotti! The method seems to indicate that they are quite easy even for a novice baker – would that be your estimation?
Celia – I have just awarded you the One Lovely Blog Award – no doubt this is not the first time you have received it!
Now I think I would like this in a perfume form! Imagine smelling like pannettone? You’d definitely be popular! :P
Celia, these are Christmas on a plate – beautiful.
:-) Mandy
Sarah, thank you, you’re very kind! :) The cedro is very expensive, I don’t think I’d buy it again. I think I’d be more inclined to sub a more easily available glace fruit, like fig or apricot.
Lorraine, the aroma is unbelievable! It really does smell like a freshly opened panettone!
Mandy, thank you! :)
They look superb!
Isn’t Joanna good to us ……
Is the Cedro the big green thing? I’m just so not a domestic goddess.
Gill, she really is so good to us! :)
Frances, the cedro is the big green thing – have a look at the link in the post, there’s a bit more info there…
this looks so pretty and festive.. thank you for sharing this. i really love it. cant wait to try this out. have a nice day.
Mr HG is all about texture & he shocked the sox off me the other day saying how he hates Christmas fruit cakes… (is that reasons for a break up.., I’ve been wondering)… but he went on to say he loved almost everything in fruit cakes (severe questioning went on but it turns out he just loves the fruit but its the texture that does him in. I think this just might solve the problem…., I shall report back :) :)
These look wonderful. I am usually not a fan of christmas cakes and the like, but I would definitely eat these!
Panettone and biscotti featured quite heavily in my childhood Christmas. Can’t believe I’ve yet to try baking my own of either of these things, but I must try this combination soon. Thank you!
Love these biscottis; haven’t made any in a while and seeing those I get the urge to produce a batch or two, these are it! (glad no butter in the recipe, just how I like it!)