GBBO December Recipe: Hazelnut & Orange Biscotti

As I sit here writing the last recipe from my GBBO calendar, I’m reminiscing over the goals I set myself at the beginning of the year.

I managed all but one of the recipes in my calendar (the missing one was due to a mystery ingredient not found in the local supermarkets). I worked on my fondant icing skills and produced 2 cakes and a set of cupcakes for friends at work and although I may not have celebrated a national or international food day every month, I certainly covered a fair few here and there. And in terms of exploring the world of dairy free, I managed to convert a few recipes, but I didn’t attempt the dairy free mango cheesecake. So overall I would say it was a good year. I will be setting myself some new goals for 2018, so keep an eye out for these.

Back to the December recipe though – orange and hazelnut biscotti. It was the first time I had made biscotti and it was a good job I re-read the recipe after I initially took them out of the oven because just after I had turned the oven off, I realised they needed to go back in very shortly.

Again with minimal ingredients and no electric mixer required, this recipe was fairly easy to make, but I would say that after tasting them, I either needed a bigger orange or perhaps two as the hazelnuts overpowered the citrus notes that should have been found there.

If you wou

Hazelnut & Orange Biscotti, GBBO Calendar December Recipe

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

250g caster sugar

½ teaspoon of baking powder

3 medium eggs at room temperature, beaten

200g blanched hazelnuts, chopped

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

How to…

Preheat the oven to 170°C and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper

Put the flour, sugar and baking powder into a large bowl and mix well

Slowly add the beaten eggs, mixing them with a wooden spoon to make a firm dough

Sprinkle the nuts and orange zest into the bowl and work into the dough until thoroughly combined

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured worktop

Knead gently for a few seconds, then divide in half

Flour your hands and shape and roll each piece of dough to a neat log about 25cm long

Transfer both logs to the lined baking trays (if you put them together on one, make sure they are set well apart from each other as they will spread)

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until golden and firm when pressed

Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly

Transfer one log at a time to a chopping board and cut across on a slight diagonal into slices 1.5-2cm thick