Cranberry theme continues today with this low-carb biscotti recipe. Biscotti (also known as cantuccini) are crunchy, twice-baked biscuits that are perfect for dunking.
Traditional recipes use wheat flour, whole almonds and pine nuts, and these days all sorts of nuts and fruit are used to jazz up the recipe. Our version today will use almond flour as base, and include pistachios and cranberries.
Pistachios are higher in carbs than other nuts, but the flavour works really well in this recipe, and the total carbs count is still about 1.5g net carbs per biscuit (although admittedly, it might be hard to eat just one and leave it at that). If you would like to lower the carb content further, substitute pistachios with other nuts like whole almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts.
In Italy, biscotti are often served with dessert wine, for dunking. Unfortunately, dessert wines are high in sugar so best to avoid them when on a low-carb diet. You can dunk your biscotti in tea or coffee instead, it is still quite satisfying!
Points to watch out
Biscotti are baked twice – first you will bake a thin loaf until just cooked through, then slice it into individual biscuits, and bake again until they are golden and crunchy.
Use a very sharp knife when cutting biscotti after the first baking stage, and do it by pressing down hard rather than going back-and-forth, to minimise crumbling.
I recommend using xanthan gum or something similar (guar gum, psyllium husks) as this will improve texture. If you don’t have these ingredients available, go ahead without them but be very careful when cutting the loaf. Once biscotti are fully cooked and cooled, you can stop worrying about this aspect.
Choosing cranberries
You can use either dried, fresh or defrosted cranberries for this one. Fresh ones contain a bit of moisture, but this will dry out during the second stage of baking anyway. If they are very big and juicy, you can dry them out in the oven a bit first before making biscotti.
Low-carb biscotti with cranberries and pistachios
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups (270g / 9oz) ground almonds
- 1 cup (90g / 3oz) shelled pistachios (or other nuts), chopped roughly
- 100g (3oz) cranberries, fresh or dried
- 1/2 cup (75g / 2.5oz) Truvia
or similar granulated sweetener
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1 small pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tbsp sugar-free vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5
- Mix dry ingredients together thoroughly – almond flour, pistachios, Truvia, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum
- Lightly beat eggs and mix with vanilla extract
- Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix thoroughly to form dense, sticky dough
- Fold in the cranberries
- Line a tray with baking paper and transfer the dough onto it
- Form a rectangular or oval loaf with your hands, about 1 inch (2.5cm) thick
- Bake for about 20-30 minutes, until it just starts to brown and is firm to the touch
- Take out of the oven and cool for about 10-15 minutes
- Turn the oven temperature down to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2
- Carefully slice up the loaf into thin slices (I ended up with 20 total)
- Place the slices onto a wire rack and put back into the oven
- Bake for further 20-30 minutes, until golden brown on both sides and firm in texture
- Let cool completely before eating
Nutritional information
Cookbooks for low-carb baking and desserts
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What amounts of Truvia, baking powder and salt do I use? These ingredients are not listed under the ingredients title but are listed in the recipe.
You don’t say how much trivia goes in your cranberry and pistachio biscotti
Is almond flour okay to use? Do I have to ground almonds?
Hi Linda, they are pretty much the same thing (although some brands of almond flour are defatted – they are usually finer in texture). But you can use either one for this recipe.
If I want to use Erythritol, how much would you recommend using in place of Truvia? I’ve heard it’s less sweet.
Hi Victoria, you are right, pure erythritol is less sweet than erythritol/Stevia mixes. Start by adding about 50% more and taste the mixture, then add more if needed. Good luck!
Just made these. Couldn’t even bake them twice all gone. Absolutely delicious
Thank you Henu 🙂 I am so glad you enjoyed them!
I made these at Christmas and they were awesome! I was a bit challenged with the fist batch being a bit over cooked and coming out dark. I kept them anyway and put them in the freezer. the second batch came out beautifully,,,and were DELICIOUS. Once this batch was gone, we went to the frozen dark ones….they were just as good…just not as pretty. Thank you for creating this recipe!
Thank you Nancy 🙂 So great to get positive comments about my recipes – it really makes my day! I am so glad you enjoyed them. And thanks for sharing the tip about the dark ones.
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These Biscottis are delicious but the net carb count is WAY off. The nutritional facts I got from this recipe is 7.29g carbs – 2.8g fiber = 4.49g net carbs.
Did you use sweetened cranberries?
Definitely not – sweetened versions have a LOT of sugar. I used frozen fresh berries – 100% cranberry with no additives whatsoever. They work fine in tandem with the sweetener in the recipe.
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