Bush Biscotti
Annabel Hughes cooks, gardens, and forages in the Zambezi Valley on a farm upriver from Victoria Falls in Zambia. Read her blog at www.SavannaBel.com.
Ingredients
- 275 grams (9.5 ounces/2 cups) whole wheat flour
- 15 ml (1 tablespoon) hazelnut meal or ground almonds
- 15 ml (1 tablespoon) linseed or flaxseed (we use whatever is available)
- 15 ml (1 tablespoon) sunflower seeds
- 2.5 ml (½ teaspoon) baking soda
- 1.2 ml (¼ teaspoon) salt
- 2 egg whites
- 1 large egg
- 60 ml (4 tablespoons) dark brown sugar
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
- 7.5 ml (1½ teaspoons) vanilla essence (extract)
- 118 ml (½ cup) Mongongo nuts or other hard, flavorful nuts
- 118 ml (½ cup) almonds
- 177 ml (¾ cup) raisins or sultanas
Note: It won’t be easy to find Mongongo nuts outside southern Africa, but most hard, flavorful nuts such as Brazil nuts or macadamias will work in this recipe.
Preparation
1. Heat the oven to 180° C (350° F), and line a baking tray with greased parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, adding the hazelnut or almond meal, linseed, sunflower seeds, baking soda, and salt. Mix together well.
3. In a separate large bowl, beat the egg whites with the whole egg until light and fluffy. Then beat in the sugars and vanilla essence.
4. Using a wooden spoon, combine the flour mixture with the egg mixture, adding the Mongongo nuts, almonds and raisins at the end. (The consistency of the dough should be stiff and sticky.)
5. Spoon out the mixture and shape into two flat, oval loaves on the baking tray, dipping your fingers into a cup of water if you find it too sticky to handle.
6. Bake on a rack in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven, cool for 10 minutes, and then slice according to the width you desire (we like it thin).
8. Rearrange sliced biscotti on the baking tray, return to the oven, and cook for a further five minutes, or until hard.
9. Remove and cool completely. Preserve in an airtight container to ensure crispness.
Annabel Hughes
Annabel Hughes cooks, gardens, and forages in the Zambezi Valley on a farm upriver from Victoria Falls in Zambia. In her blog, SavannaBel, she writes about the joys and challenges of creating, adapting, and executing recipes in a bush kitchen in semi-arid Kalahari sand watered by the Zambezi River. Previously, Annabel worked as a journalist and activist in London and Washington, D.C. She has been published in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and southern Africa, and has worked for CNN International. Annabel moved back to Africa, where she was born and grew up, at the end of 2012.
Courtesy photo
Read more from Annabel Hughes
