Harvest Biscotti

A few vegan sweet potato biscotti go perfectly with afternoon tea. These are 75% whole grain and studded with pecans and dried cranberries

So here we are, a few days before Christmas and a few days after Hanukkah, where cookies and other yummy things are rampant and elastic pants are valuable. While indulgent cookies and cakes are of course part of my holiday repertoire, I'm actually known more for my yearly assortment of biscotti than anything else. I already shared two of this year's treats with you - Rainbow Biscotti Bites and  Allergy Friendly Gingerbread Biscotti -  and I have three more including this one!

Why biscotti? Well, it's one of the most perfect "gifting" cookies out there. They're sturdy and long lasting, infinitely variable, and tuck neatly into almost any gift. These ones, for example, I designed to be vegan, using vegan mayonnaise and homemade egg replacer along with some leftover sweet potatoes frozen from Thanksgiving. Combined with other festive ingredients like pecans and craisins, I soon wound up with a flavourful, super-easy dough that cut beautifully for the second bake (always an issue!). My mom, who is not a fan of crunchy biscotti, ate the once-baked ends as "long cookies" while the biscotti-philes indulged in the full experience. Both versions were met with acclaim - and disappeared before I could get the maple glaze I had planned onto them!

Harvest Biscotti
Makes 24
½ cup oil
⅔ cup sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
6 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
2 tbsp egg replacer
1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato (1 large sweet potato)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
½ cup finely chopped pecans
½ cup dried cranberries

1. Beat oil, sugars, mayo, egg replacer, sweet potato and vanilla until blended.
2. Add flours, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt and beat at low speed until blended.
3. Knead in pecans and cranberries.
4. Divide dough in half and shape each portion into a 10" x 6" log on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes. Cool to the touch. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.
6. Cut each log crosswise into ½ -thick slices with a serrated knife. Place slices, cut side down, on ungreased cookie sheets.
7. Bake at 325° for 15 minutes; turn slices over and bake 15 more minutes. Turn slices upright, and return to oven. Turn oven off, and leave in oven to cool completely

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 113.9
Total Fat: 4.5 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 21.2 mg
Total Carbs: 18.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.6 g
Protein: 1.9 g