The BEST Gluten Free Biscotti Recipe — studded with sweet-tart dried cherries and toasty hazelnuts. These crunchy Italian cookies are the perfect companion to coffee or tea, and make wonderful holiday gifts. Keep a batch in your freezer for guests over the holidays.
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I was lucky to have a close family growing up. My grandparents lived down the street, and when my parents were working, my brother and I could easily walk down to their house for meals or to do activities with them.
Biscotti was one of the things we made together during the holiday season. This gluten free version is loaded with tart cherries and big chunks of hazelnuts, and then drizzled with dark chocolate and orange zest, just like my grandma made it.
Contents
The BEST Biscotti Recipe Ever!
This healthy biscotti is loaded with seasonal flavors. Much more complex than a typical cookie, you’ll taste:
- Chewy, sweet & tart cherries (!!)
- Toasty hazelnuts
- Cinnamon & Ginger
- Dark rich chocolate
- A zing of orange zest
- Lightly & perfectly sweetened with honey
A while ago, I discovered Fruit Bliss organic dried fruits. I was drawn to the company because I am always looking for dried fruit without added sugar — it’s harder to find than you would think!
Fruit Bliss is committed to bringing wholesome snacks with simple ingredients. The organic dried fruits are perfect for baking, adding to salads, or snacking on plain.
All products are organic and non-GMO, two big pluses, especially with cherries, which are one of the “dirty dozen” and should be bought organic whenever possible.
The dried cherries are incredible if you love tart and chewy like me. I add them to trail mixes for the best on-the-go snack.
How to Make Biscotti
The first step to making biscotti is to mix together the dry ingredients, and then mix together the wet ingredients. Once those are combined separately, add the wet mixture to the dry, and stir to combine. Add the cherries and roughly chopped hazelnuts and fold in.
Since this biscotti is made with healthier whole grain oat and almond flours, and only lightly sweetened with honey, it requires some chilling to keep it shaped well.
Once the dough is chilled, shape it into a log to bake, similar in size to this photo.
Once the loaf is baked, make sure it fully cools before slicing. I allow it to cool, and then freeze it for an hour, so that my slices are as clean as possible.
Slice the loaf into long, thin slices, about 1/2-3/4 inch thick. The thinner they are, the more they will crisp up.
Bake the sliced cookies for another 18 minutes, and then here’s a trick for getting really crisp biscotti: open up the oven to allow the heat to escape for about a minute, and then put the biscotti back in the warm oven and let it sit in there for 10-20 minutes. The continued warm air will crisp it up beautifully without over browning or burning the cookies.
The best part?! (Besides the tart chewy cherries, of course) — The dark chocolate drizzle! For additional flavor, I grated some orange zest on top and allowed that to stick to the chocolate as it cooled and hardened.
Tips for the Best Gluten Free Biscotti
The key to a lot of gluten free recipes is patience, and accuracy. Gluten free recipes are not as forgiving as those made with plain flour and sugar. I’ve been making these over the past couple of weeks, and have narrowed down on some tips to produce the perfect lightly golden brown, crunchy biscotti.
Biscotti is a classic Italian twice baked cookie. The cookie dough is first baked into a “log,” and then thinly sliced, laid back out on a baking tray and baked a second time. This crisps up the slices and turns it in to a sweet and crispy cookie, perfect for dipping into mugs of coffee and tea.
Often, biscotti is then drizzled or dipped into chocolate. I also added lots of freshly grated orange zest for even more seasonal flavor.
To ensure your biscotti turns out perfect, follow these important steps!
- Chill the dough prior to shaping in a log. I have made this without chilling it, and while it will bake up fine, it spreads out too thinly, and then also over browns. Almond flour over browns/burns a lot faster than wheat flour.
- Again — freeze the baked loaf before slicing. Gluten free baked goods are very crumbly while hot. Allowing it to fully cool will help it slice into cleaner slices. I let it cool for about 30 minutes on the baking sheet, and then put it in the freezer for another hour before I cut my slices.
- After baking the slices, open the oven to allow heat to escape for about a minute, and then put the biscotti back into the oven and allow it to stay in there and fully crisp, for about 10-15 minutes. Leaving it in there too long will make the biscotti over brown, but it will still taste good. If you’d like to have a chewier cookie rather than a crisp cookie, you can take it out of the oven or even reduce the baking time by a couple of minutes.
- Allow the biscotti to cool completely before drizzling or dipping into chocolate.
- Store refrigerated for up to 3 weeks, or frozen for longer. I like to keep healthy baked goods in the freezer and just pull out as needed, to ensure they are always the freshest possible!
Gluten Free Biscotti with Tart Cherries and Hazelnuts
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 5 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil melted
- 1 1/2 tablespoons orange zest
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour blanched
- 1/2 cup oat flour
- 3 tablespoons arrowroot
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ginger to taste (some ground ginger is very strong)
- 3/4 cup Fruit Bliss Organic Dried Tart Cherries
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts roughly chopped
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients, except the cherries and hazelnuts, and stir together. In a smaller bowl, mix together the wet ingredients, and stir together.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.
- Add the cherries and roughly chopped hazelnuts (I chop them almost just in half, so the chunks show up in the slices of biscotti), and fold in.
- Chill the dough for 1 hour. This step is important for preventing the almond flour from over browning, and keeping the dough for spreading out too much during baking.
- Preheat oven to 340 degrees F. A slightly lower baking temperature than typical is important to keep the almond flour from over browning.
- Take the chilled dough, and on a lined baking tray, form into a log about 1 1/2 inches high and 6 inches across.
- Bake the cookie log for 20 minutes. Once baked, allow to cool for about 20 minutes, and then freeze for about an hour before slicing.
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees F.
- Take the chilled or frozen loaf, and slice into thin slices. If you'd like crunchier biscotti, try to cut about 18 slices (3/4 an inch), or if you'd like a chewier biscotti, as few as 13-14 slices.
- Bake biscotti slices for 18 minutes. Open the oven door for about a minute after it finishes baking to allow the heat to escape, and then leave the biscotti in the oven for an additional 10 minutes to crisp up completely.
- Once the biscotti has cooled, drizzle it or dip it into melted dark chocolate and then grate orange zest over the top before the chocolate hardens.
- For best results, store biscotti in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, or the freezer wrapped tightly for up to 3 months.
Video
Other Christmas Cookie Recipes:
- Paleo Fudge, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Raw Peppermint Brownies, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Coconut Mint Cookie Truffles, by Sunkissed Kitchen
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This easy almond biscotti recipe post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase, I will receive part of the sale as a commission. This helps me continue to bring you lots of fresh and inspired recipes!
These are so delicious. I have been blessed to have Michelle as my daughter. So I got to have with coffee the last few days. I stop by her house in the morning for coffee and Biscotti. Yum
Thank you Mom! 🙂
They look so amazing! I don’t have arrowroot, do you think I can substitute for tapioca starch?
Yes, arrowroot is just a particular type of tapioca. They are basically the same thing!
I was looking all over for a good butter free/gluten free biscotti recipe so was super happy to come across this recipe and even happier with the cookies! They’re SO delicious, perfect amount of sweetness and spice level. Thanks for the recipe and definitely will be making this again!
I did have a few questions though since I made a couple of alterations. I grinded my own rolled oats and the flour was pretty fine but not super fine and used 3/4 cup instead of 1/2 and 3/4-1 cup almond flour. I also used chopped dark chocolate instead of dried cherries. I wasn’t super patient so only chilled it in the freezer for 30min after letting the log cool after first round of chilling then baking and my slices were pretty clean but not super clean. The biscotti was also quite crumbly after it came out and also not hard/crispy enough so I turned the oven on for another 10 minutes and let it sit in there after but it didn’t make much of a difference. Do you think I should of cut my pieces thinner or was it something to do with the batter or chilling? I got about 16 1-1.5cm wide slices out of the log including 1 mini slice on each side. Next time I’d like them to be harder to dip in tea so just figuring out what I could do!
Thanks ☺
Rebecca
These do come out quite hard for me — so I imagine it’s because you are using oats that you are grinding into a flour rather than a store milled super fine flour. I don’t think the chilling time has anything to do with it other than making it more difficult to slice. I’ll be making variations of this for the holidays this year so I will for sure keep your questions in mind! Thanks for reaching out.
Hi Michelle, these look delicious! Just wondering if you can use cornstarch in place of arrowroot? Thanks!
Yes, they are interchangeable!