Fig & Walnut Spiced Biscotti is winter’s sophisticated little crunchy cookie; perfect for a cup of tea, coffee, or dipped in wine .
For every cookie there is a season, and every season, a flavor.
Such is the story of my winter cookie itch.
Such is the story of my Fig & Walnut Spiced Biscotti.
Well, it’s not really mine….or rather….it became…mine…..
The original biscotti recipe is a mandel bread recipe from my husband’s grandmother….the best mandel bread baker there ever was. (I find mandel bread and biscotti rather interchangeable. So….do with that as you will.) She made the best mandel bread. It’s actually why I married my husband in the first place. He had a bag of his grandmother’s mandel bread in his apartment….I tried a piece…then a second….then I was in love….with that mandel bread….I mean….him….of course.
Because I tend to mess with everything and can never leave well enough alone….I began to tinker with the world’s best mandel bread recipe….sacrilege, I know. Because I love traditional mandel bread I do I do I do….but this is a cookie for all season and I wanted a deep winter cookie. One that has heft and warmth. A cookie you would easily dip in your tea and coffee, just as you would a delicious glass of port or wine.
This is that cookie.
You’ll love Fig & Walnut Spiced Biscotti
Let us welcome to the baking world my Fig & Walnut Spiced Biscotti; a cookie steeped in the heart of January, where the ice and the snow and the darkness have fully encompassed you and you can’t quite recall when the sunshine had last peeked out behind the clouds. Take all that and wrap it into the flavor profile of this very crunchy cookie…..Filled to the brim with dried figs, toasted walnuts and spices.
I love figs. I love them in scones like in my Fig & Brown Butter Scones, or just drizzled with honey all by their lonesome. But fig season is short. Too short. So I have been leaning into the idea of dried figs. Or rather, become enamored with them. They are really gorgeous. Dried figs have this woodsy, smoky taste and their seeds become little pop rocks. These Fig & Walnut Spiced Biscotti are flavored with Kafe Hiwaij from New York Shuk. I exclusively use this particular blend because cardamom is the first ingredient as oppose to ginger, which normally is the first spice in most company blends. Do yourselves a huge favor and secure yourself a bottle or two or ten.
This morning, as it sleets, hails, snows, and does whatever January does, bake up a batch of these biscotti. Dip them in your coffee or sneak one out of the jar as you pass through the kitchen. Go ahead, you deserve it.
Fig & Walnut Spiced Biscotti
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons raw sugar
- 1¼ teaspoon, rounded clementine/orange zest
- 8 tablespoons butter softened
- 2 large eggs lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kafe hiwaij spice blend
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup walnuts toasted then small rough, chop
- 150 grams best quality dried figs (roughly 1 heaping cup, roughly 8 large figs) stemmed removed, chopped small. See notes.
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the walnuts out over it.
- Toast the walnuts in the oven for roughly 6-8 minutes or until you begin to smell the walnuts toasting. You don't want them cooked, just warmed through so their oils awaken. Remove them from the oven. When the walnuts are cool enough to handle, roughly chop them up and set them aside.
- While the walnuts are toasting, destem the dried figs and roughly chop them into small pieces. Ideally, the pieces should be no larger than ¼ inch or so. Set them aside.
- Fit your stand mixer with a paddle attachment.
- In the bowl of the mixer, add the raw sugar and clementine/orange zest. Using the back of a spoon, mix and work the zest into the sugar, allowing the oil from the zest to work into the sugar. Add the butter and and mix on medium until creamed. (You may need to scrap down the bowl a few times.)
- Add the eggs, and vanilla extract and mix until well blended. (You may need to scrap down the bowl a few times.)
- In a medium bowl, combine the kosher salt, baking powder, flour, kafe hiwaij, ground cinnamon and stir to combine. Add the chopped walnuts and figs and stir well to combine.
- With the mixer turned off, carefully tip the dry ingredients into the bowl of the stand mixer. Turn the mixer on low and mix the batter until all ingredients are incorporated and there are no streaks of flour left in the batter.
- Carefully scrape all the batter out of the mixing bowl onto the parchment lined cookie sheet that was used for the walnuts. Slightly flour your hands and shape the batter into a 11×3½ inch loaf. Sprinkle (and slightly pat) the 1½ tablespoons of raw sugar over the loaf.
- Bake the biscotti loaf for 28-30 minutes in the oven until the top of the loaf feels firm (but not hard) to the touch.
- Remove the biscotti loaf from the oven and allow the loaf to cool sufficiently, 20-25 minutes. (If you don't allow it to sufficiently cool, the loaf will crumble when you slice it)
- Carefully transfer the loaf (it's still delicate) to a cutting board and use a very sharp knife to cut ½ inch slices.
- Arrange the biscotti, laying flat, back onto the cookie tray and bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes or until the part of the cookie touching the cookie sheet is lightly browned.
- Carefully flip each biscotti over and put back into the oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes until browned. I like a crunchier, darker biscotti (closer to the 15 minutes), but toast them to your personal preference.
- Remove the biscotti from the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack. Allow them to cool completely before storing them in a glass container with a lid.
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