Vegan Biscotti with Provençal Flavors

These sweet and crunchy Vegan Biscotti with Provençal Flavors feature dried lavender, citrus zest, and toasted almonds. They have just the right texture for eating alone or dunking in coffee.

This is another recipe that I’ve been making for a long time and have recently veganized. The original included butter and eggs, but as I’ve discovered over years of practice in vegan baking, these two ingredients are easily replaceable. This cookie’s delicate flavor comes from floral lavender and bright citrus. I came up with this biscotti recipe after I took a trip to the southern French region of Provence, which is renowned for its fields of lavender and sunflowers and abundance of citrus and almonds.

Biscotti can seem like a finicky cookie recipe because they must be baked twice to achieve the distinct texture. As a result of this double baking, however, some biscotti can turn out unpleasantly hard. Not these though. These have the right amount of crunch and snap so they are robust enough to be dunked into hot tea or coffee, but are not so hard as to be painful to one’s teeth. I often make a double batch of these because everyone loves them and they store so well.

Vegan Biscotti with Provençal Flavors

 

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These sweet and crunchy Vegan Biscotti with Provençal Flavors feature dried lavender, citrus zest, and toasted almonds. They have just the right texture for eating alone or dunking in coffee.

Author: Lands & Flavors

Ingredients

• ½ cup roughly chopped almonds
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
• 6 Tablespoons water
• ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar
• ⅓ cup oil (I used a combo of coconut and olive oil)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 heaping teaspoon dried lavender flowers
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Toast the almonds until they are golden. You can put them on a small tray in the oven or for a quicker toast, put them in a small toaster oven. Either way, watch them carefully so they don't burn. Remove and set aside.
3. Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Add the ground flax, water, sugar, oil, vanilla, lavender, salt, nutmeg, lemon zest, and orange zest to a large bowl and mix well with a sturdy spatula or spoon until the sugar is mostly dissolved and the mixture looks emulsified. Stir in the flour and baking powder, as well as the toasted almonds and mix to combine thoroughly into a workable dough.
5. Divide this dough in half and roll each half into a 12-14 inch long rope onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Pat down each rope to an even thickness of about ½ inch. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
6. After 30 minutes, remove the sheet from the oven and cool for 5-10 minutes until the baked cookie masses are cool enough to handle. Now use a sharp or serrated knife to cut the large cookie mass into ½ inch slices. Start at one end and and cut your way to the other by slicing diagonal slices instead of perpendicular. This gives the cookies a nicer shape. Eat the small leftover ends. 🙂
7. Align these slices back onto the cookie sheet, cut side up, and bake for 10 minutes. After ten minutes, remove the tray and flip each cookie onto its other cut side and bake for another 8 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and allow the biscotti to cool completely before serving. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

-This recipe makes around 35-40 biscotti.

-Be sure to use a culinary grade lavender and not dried lavender flowers that are sold in craft and potpourri stores.

-I like to crush some of the lavender flowers between my fingers before adding to the dough to release more flavor.

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