Elana's Pantry

New York Times Bestselling author Elana Amsterdam founded Elana’s Pantry, the go-to website for easy, healthy, grain-free, Paleo recipes, in 2006

cranberry chocolate biscotti

Cranberry Chocolate Biscotti

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The base of this gluten-free biscotti recipe is made with just 5 ingredients –almond flour, salt, baking soda, honey, and egg. After mixing these healthy ingredients together to form the dough, you simply stir in the next 3 scrumptious ingredients –dried cranberries, dark chocolate, and pecans. Voila, you’ve got incredibly tasty paleo biscotti cookies!

Every newly diagnosed celiac I know wants a good gluten-free cookie recipe. I sure did when I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 1998. I like that this healthy biscotti recipe is made with high-protein almond flour, rather than rice flour, which is the flour typically used in gluten-free desserts.

Quick and easy this paleo biscotti recipe is perfect with a cup of tea for a healthy dessert or nutritious snack.

My friend Aimee was here the other day and I gave her one of these biscotti fresh out of the oven. She is not on a gluten-free foods diet, so I was concerned she might not be as enthusiastic about them as my family is.

I asked her how the biscotti tasted and she replied, “this is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten!” She’s more of the quiet and understated type, so her feedback meant a lot to me.

Cranberry Chocolate Biscotti
Serves: 36 biscotti
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, blend honey and egg with a hand blender
  2. In a separate bowl, stir together almond flour, salt, and baking soda
  3. Add dry ingredients to wet, stir until combined
  4. Mix in chocolate, cranberries, and pecans
  5. Form dough into 4 logs 5" long and 3" wide on a parchment lined baking sheet
  6. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes
  7. Remove from oven and cool for 2 hours
  8. Transfer log to a cutting board and cut into ½ inches slices on the diagonal
  9. Place biscotti on parchment lined baking sheet
  10. Bake at 350° for 6 minutes, turn slices over and bake for an additional 6 minutes
  11. Remove from oven, let cool until crunchy about 20 minutes
  12. Serve

Here are some of my other gluten-free dessert recipes:

Comments

  1. Hi Connie,

    Thanks for your comment. I made the original recipe and encountered similar issues to you, so I retested it a bunch of times to come up with a newer and better version above.

    Elana

    Reply

  2. Just took the logs out of the oven and they spread quite a bit. I’m waiting for them to cool, so I can slice them and put them back in the oven. I noticed right off the bat that something was off because when I whipped the honey and egg, it didn’t actually get fluffy. I kept the hand mixer on for a good 5 minutes, but it stayed a frothy consistency. Is that normal? The only substitutions I made were chopped almonds/raisins for the pecans/cranberries. Could the fact that my egg mixture didn’t get fluffy be the cause of my logs spreading out or could it be something else? Thanks!

    Reply

  3. I have tried this recipe 3 times and it never turns out right! I am using regular almond flour – is that why? When I take the log out of the oven it is still very soft but the ends are very cooked. What am I doing wrong?

    Reply

    • Hi Carm, yes, that is the issue, my recipes require blanched almond flour, and best results come from using the recommended brands that are in green text in the ingredients portion of the recipes. For additional information on baking with almond flour you may want to check out this page:

      https://elanaspantry.com/almond-flour/

      I hope you enjoy the biscotti next time!
      Elana

      Reply

  4. Love this recipe!!! tried it today (half quantity) just to test it out and fell in love! I’m going to replace the flavour with date and walnuts and add mixed spice to it at the weekend for my inlaws ???????????? thank u so much for the recipe!

    Reply

  5. I made these with Enjoy Life’s mini chocolate chips instead of the chocolate drops, with Zante currants instead of raisins, and walnuts instead of pecans. I was just using ingredients I had on hand.

    They turned out WONDERFUL.. AMAZING. I have never made biscotti before, but I’ve never made a recipe from Elana that wasn’t great.

    Reply

  6. The first time I made this the biscotti got quite dark, not burned but close to it. I just made it again today, but I decreased the 2nd and 3rd bake times to just 10 minutes each. The biscotti looks perfect.

    Reply

  9. I have made two attempts at this recipe and each time I have burned the cookies. I even used an oven thermometer to check the oven temperature and a ruler to measure out the width of the cookie slices. Any suggestions? Thank you.

    Reply

    • Hmmm… I’ve made these twice and each time they have come out great.

      What kind of almond flour are you using? also, is it blanched almond flour? did you substitute any of the ingredients?

      Reply

      • Thank you. Hmmm… I used blanched almond flour. My only substitutions were: amaretto-soaked cherries for cranberries and almond slivers for pecans (because of a ruffly-nut allergy). Could it be the boozy fruit?

        Reply

  11. Your recipes look fantastic. I have 2 people in my house with type 1 diabetes and another child with severe tree nut allergies. Can you recommend any other non nut based flour as a substitute for your recipes?
    Thanks!
    Jewels

    Reply

  12. Shannon,

    Wow, love your substitutions. Very low-carb! Wish I could digest xylitol, though it doesn’t agree with me. Your version sounds delicious!!!

    Thanks,
    Elana

    Reply

  13. I made these today, but with some substitutions using what I had on hand.

    I substituted xylitol for the agave, used walnuts and bits of unsweetened chocolate and added a pinch of stevia since I was using unsweetened chocolate. So yummy.

    Reply

    • Shannon,

      Wow, love your substitutions. Very low-carb! Wish I could digest xylitol, though it doesn’t agree with me. Your version sounds delicious!!!

      Thanks,
      Elana

      Reply

  14. Hi Elana,
    I just made brownies out of this recipe; I added 1/4 cocoa powder and left out the cranberries, poured the batter into a 4 x 8 pyrex and baked just until set, they came out delicious! I’m sure you could probably enhance the recipe, but thanks for the starting off point. It’s so great to find gluten-free recipes that are more health conscious,
    Lisa

    Reply

  15. What a coincidence! My name is Elana, and I’m a gluten-free vegetarian…with vegan tendancies! What are the odds? Amazing.

    Reply

    • Anna,

      I get asked this type of question a lot. I set up a frequently asked questions page which addresses substitutions in my recipes. Please see my faqs for more information.

      You may also want to post a topic on this issue in the forums.

      Thanks,
      Elana

      Reply

    • Anna Rhoades, I often use Coconut Secret’s Coconut Nectar in place of agave as it’s also a sticky liquid (so it doesn’t change the recipe) and supposedly much healthier than agave with a low glycemic index and more nutrients. (Of course, they said that about agave at first, too! But I’ll keep using it until I hear otherwise.) I get it at Whole Foods.

      I tend to cut back on the quantity a little because I do find it maybe slightly sweeter than agave and I don’t like things very sweet anyway.

      Reply

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