Lenten Cocoa Roasted Almond Biscotti {recipe}

i'm a dunking kind of gal. i love to have my tea or coffee as soon as i wake up and something to dunk is almost a necessity. it's so hard to find good lenten morning snacks though. don't get me wrong, i can eat chocolate chip cookies and curious george bread till i'm stuffed, but sometimes i'm just in the mood for something different. it feels like i'm always eating the same things when i fast, so i'm usually on a mission to find new recipes.

biscotti are one of my all-time favorite snacks. always have been. and i have scoured the grocery stores looking for any kind that are vegan but i never have any luck. so, i googled for recipes and ran across a few but none that really made me think, yum! so i improvised. i took a couple of different recipes and combined them and then changed a couple of things around. the most important thing i changed were the almonds. i didn't have any regular almonds, only the cocoa roasted ones. lucky me because they turned out super scrumptious! i wasn't in the mood for anything super chocolate-y, so these almonds just gave the slightest hint of cocoa, which was perfect.

most of the ingredients are pretty basic except for the almonds, and maybe the wheat flour and unsweetened apple sauce, depending on the type of things you normally bake. this small container of almonds is from publix but you can also get them in bulk from sam's club.

Cocoa Roasted Almond Biscotti

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup smooth unsweetened applesauce
• 1 -3 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups cocoa roasted almonds, toasted and chopped

Directions:01. Preheat oven the 325°F.02. Lightly oil two cookie sheets.03. Use double layer shiny ones, if you have them.04. If yours are very black, line them with foil.05. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt.06. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, applesauce, oil (1 TBS for a hard biscotti, 2-3 TBS for a softer biscuit), and extracts.

i chopped the almonds up in my mini chopper (which i got a few years ago from wal-mart on black friday for $5!) and put them in the convection oven to toast.

07. Stir the sugar mixture into the flour mixture, add the nuts; finish mixing with your hands.**note that the dough is really, really sticky. when i made the first batch, i thought it needed more flour so i added another probably 3/4 cup but that made the end result a little harder than they should have been. so, the amount written in the recipe below (3 cups) is perfect. your dough will still be extremely sticky and it's a little hard to work with but trust me, they'll come out fine.

08. With floured hands, shape the dough into two 3-inch wide "logs" about 3/4 inch thick, with the ends squared off.09. Place these on the cookie sheets.10. Bake the logs for about 25 minutes.11. Remove the pans and reduce the oven heat to 300°F.12. Cool the logs on a rack for 15 minutes.

(if you've never made biscotti before, this is usually what my logs look like. you'll have two of them with this recipe.)

13. Cut the logs carefully with a sharp knife straight across into 1/2 inch wide slices.14. Place the slices cut side down on the cookie sheets (you can remove the foil, if using).15. Bake 5-10 minutes, or until golden on the bottom.16. Turn the slices over and cook 5-10 minutes more, or until golden on bottom.17. Cool on racks, then store airtight for up to two weeks.that's it! make a fresh pot of tea and enjoy! :)