Cranberry Orange Biscotti with Pistachios

Cranberry Orange Biscotti with Pistachios, a delicious Christmas treat that is so full of festive flavours. They are wonderfully crunchy and dry, and they are best served dunk in a hot festive drink.

Cranberries and oranges make one fine combo during the festive season. They go so wonderfully well in so many treats, either sweet, like my Cranberry and Orange Shortbread Cookies, or savoury.

Dried cranberries are perfect for baking, as they are easily available at this time of the year, and a large packet of cranberries can be put to so many uses, from cookies, to Christmas cake, to stuffing like in my Chestnut and Cranberry Stuffing Balls.

They are so versatile and add so much flavour and texture to any bake. And then you have oranges, with their lovely festive flavour. Whether you enjoy them on their own, or in a bake, oranges are always around at Christmas.

Pistachios are my guilty pleasure no matter the time of the year, they are so delicious, it's usually hard to keep some for desserts, are I tend to munch of them all day long. But they are excellent in so many desserts, with my Pistachio Baklava being such a treat"

These cranberry orange biscotti with pistachios are super simple to make, and we only need a handful of ingredients too. No fuss, no mess, an absolute pleasure to bake! For other flavours, why not try my Lemon and Almond Biscotti?

Jump to:

• Ingredients needed
• Step-by-step photos and instructions
• Expert tips
• Cranberry Orange Biscotti with Pistachios

Ingredients needed

• flour - I used plain flour, there is no need for self-raising one
• sugar - I had caster sugar, but granulated is also ok
• egg - I used a large egg, medium should also do
• orange - we need the zest from the whole orange, but only one tablespoon of orange juice
• dried cranberries
• pistachios - I prefer to shell them myself, the ready-shelled ones aren't usually so nice
• baking powder
• orange essence - totally optional, but if you have any, do use it, it's adds so much flavour

Step-by-step photos and instructions

• In a mixing bowl, add the egg and sugar, and use a hand mixer to beat them well to a smooth texture and pale yellow colour
• sift in the flour, add the baking powder, cranberries, orange zest and juice and pistachios
• use a spatula to mix everything well to a rather wet and sticky dough
• line a baking try with non-stick paper and add the dough into a sausage shape ( see photo 4)
• bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20-22 minutes until the top is golden and firm

• leave it to cool for 5 minutes, then use a bread knife to carefully cut across diagonally into biscuits of 1.5 cm in thickness
• arrange the biscuits onto the tray again
• bake for a further 10 minutes, turn them over, and bake again for an extra 10 minutes
• leave them to cool completely, they will harden even more after

Expert tips

These biscotti are super easy to make, and the recipe is pretty much failproof and very straightforward. Do not add too much orange juice, as the dough would then be too wet to work with properly.

Baking them twice ensure a very dry and crunchy texture, just the way it should be. If it's baked only once, the biscotti, although still nice, won't have the desired texture.

Don't leave the biscuit loaf to cool for longer than 5 minutes after the first baking, as it will harden too much and it will be hard to cut it without crumbling.

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