Staring into our refrigerator, my eyes settled on a bag of almond meal flour. That sad bag of barely used flour. I had purchased it for an almond cake that bombed. After that, the bag had slowly descended further and further into the recesses of the fridge. Poor almond meal flour. It wasn't your fault that the cake didn't work out.
Letting things go bad in the fridge is a huge pet peeve of mine. Anytime I find something that's fallen by the wayside - hiding behind a bottle or pushed to the far back where it can only peek out - a small fire burns inside me. I hate to be wasteful. You may as well throw away some money - which in turn is throwing away the time you spent earning that money in the first place - and wasting the environments resources. Ahem.
Long story short. I had to use the almond meal four!
As luck would have, I found this recipe for biscottis that is a combination of a whole cup of almond meal plus some gluten-free flour. Add some maple syrup for sweetness and little almond extract for fragrance. Sprinkle the topping of your choice - I used a little more almond but mini chocolate chips would be great too!
Since this is a gluten-free recipe, it calls for a teaspoon xanthan gum to serve as a binding agent. I bypassed this part because I rarely use the stuff and it aint cheap. With two eggs in the batter, it held its form. If it's too dry, sprinkle a few drops of water. As you can see, it worked out quite nicely!
Overall, these make great cookies! My husband exclaimed that these are the only biscottis he's ever truly enjoyed. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Like I said, they're great COOKIES but they didn't pass my BISCOTTI test. A biscotti must be perfect for dipping in a cup of coffee. It needs to be able to suck in the liquid and briefly hold it. When I dipped these biscotti, they held their shape like a statue. Even after a minute in the cup, they failed to absorb any liquid. That's no surprise though - they are made of almonds after all- nature's sponge (kidding). If you're a biscotti purist like me, these won't hit the mark but they make a darn good cookie.
The recipe for these tasty Chocolate Dipped Almond Biscottis can be found on Fit Food Finds!
