Last minute Christmas baking: dried fruit and ginger biscotti

This recipe has caused a lot of questions from my facebook friends, so I’m glad to share it here. Biscotti are obviously not Slovak Christmas classics, but I think that it’s a nice addition to the variety of cookies. They also remind German Christmas stollen, they are just quicker to make. A lot of biscotti recipes include nuts and almonds, I’ve made “nut free version” as I can’t say that I like an idea of hard nuts in dry biscotti.
( 🇸🇰 slovenský preklad nájdete za anglickým textom)

Ingredients
200g of all-purpose flour

1,5 tsp of baking powder

100g of brown sugar

4 dried figs, minced

5-6 dried dates, minced

40g of raisins

40g of candied ginger, minced

2 eggs, beaten

2-3 tbs of water

pinch of salt

zest of 1 small lemon or 1 tbs of dry lemon zest

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and knead dough or better to say “dough like” texture which is very elastic and quite sticky (it’s great to have plastic baking spoon aka spatula as it helps a lot in such cases).
2. Further directions depend on whether you have a baking form for bread loaves or not. In case that yes, just transfer the dough into a greased baking form. If not, flour your hands, make a roll from the dough and transfer it to the form with baking paper.
3. Bake biscotti for 30 minutes in the oven preheated to 160C.
4. Take biscotti out of the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes and cut into 5mm slices. Put the slices back to the baking sheet and return them to the oven for 5 minutes. Then open the oven, turn the slices and bake for 5 more minutes.

Biscotti can be stored in closed containers for up to 14 days, so you can start your Christmas baking with them.

🇸🇰 Biscotti so sušeným ovocím a kandizovaným zázvorom
(na cca 28ks)

200g hladkej múky

1,5 čl kypriaceho prášku

100g hnedého cukru

4 sušené figy, nakrájané na drobno

5-6 sušených ďatlí, nakrájaných na drobno

40 g hrozienok

40 g kandizovaného zázvoru, nakrájaného na drobno

2 vajcia

2-3 pl vody

štipka soli

kôra z 1 malého citróna alebo 1 PL suchej citrónovej kôry

Postup

1. Zmiešajte všetky ingrediencie v miske a vymiešajte cesto. Bude dosť lepkavé, preto sa vám bude hodiť varecha “spatula”, ktorá pri manipulácii s cestom veľmi pomôže.
2. Ďalší postup závisí od toho, či máte formu na pečenie chleba alebo nie. Ak áno, preložte cesto do vymastenej formy na pečenie. Ak takú formu nemáte, posypte si ruky múkou, urobte z cesta dlhý valec a preložte ho na pekáč vystlaný papierom na pečenie.
3. Biscotti pečieme 30 minút v rúre predhriatej na 160 ° C.
4. Po vybratí z rúry nechajte valec vychladnúť 10 minút a nakrájajte ho na 5 mm tenké plátky. Plátky položte späť na plech a vráťte ich do rúry na 5 minút. Potom otvorte rúru, otočte plátky a pečte ešte posledných 5 minút.

Biscotti sa môžu skladovať do 2 týždňov v pevné zavretých dózach.