Bejewelled biscotti with Turkish delight and pistachios

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

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About this recipe

‘Let’s talk’ is the life lesson that inspired this recipe – you can find it here.

If we’re talking talking over tea and biscuits, this is one of my favourite biscuit recipes. Confiding can mean being vulnerable. Biscotti however, are far from vulnerable. I love making biscotti because, first, they are indestructibly dunkable; and second, because the recipe can withstand a great deal of risk-taking – you can stud, swap and/or supplement with most sweet things you have in the cupboard (and here I’ll risk alienating any chocoholics – don’t use chocolate chunks, as they tend to smear when you slice them and your finished biscuits won’t be as pretty).

This recipe makes a lot of biscotti. But that’s on purpose – it means more time for talking.

Ingredients

150g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
Zest of 1 lemon
200g plain flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder (7g)
Pinch of salt
100g shelled pistachios
100g rose-flavoured Turkish delight, cut into little 1cm chunks

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk the sugar, eggs and lemon zest together, using an electric mixer on high speed. Whip for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is noticeably thicker, has a pale colour and makes a ribbon-like trail when you lift the beater(s).
In another bowl, add the flour, baking powder, salt, pistachios and Turkish delight chunks and mix gently until evenly combined.
Gradually fold in the whipped eggs and sugar to the flour mix. The dough will be quite sticky.
Flour your hands first, then, confidently and swiftly, take half of your dough and place directly on one side of your baking sheet. Roll into a sausage shape of about 2.5cm in diameter – use the length of the baking sheet as a guide. Spin your baking sheet around and repeat with the other half of the mixture along the other side – leave as large a space as you can in between your two sausages of biscuit dough because the biscotti will spread as they bake.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until they become a pale golden colour, then remove from the oven and turn the temperature down to 150C/gas mark 2.
Wait for about 10 minutes – the biscotti should feel warm to touch, but firm. Slide off the baking tray onto a large chopping board and, using a serrated knife, cut the biscotti into individual diagonal slices about 1.5cm thick.
Lay the individual biscotti back on to the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Then, turn them over and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until they are a biscuit blonde golden colour.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. Store in airtight containers of your fancy; they will keep for a good few months.