Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti: Gluten Free
A classic Italian twice baked biscotti studded with pistachios and flavoured with chocolate, orange and cardamom. Perfect for dunking. What’s more these chocolate pistachio biscotti are gluten-free.
It’s the second week in December and I’ve only just made my first Christmas recipe. Biscuits and cookies make great gifts at Christmas and when I’m organised, I like to make a few of them. I’ve started with these gluten free chocolate pistachio biscotti as I want to get a few sent off in the post and biscotti are great keepers.
Gluten-Free Biscuits
These chocolate pistachio biscotti are super delicious, easy to make and look pretty with pieces of emerald green pistachios shining out. I’ve made them gluten free. Gluten isn’t an issue for me, but it’s really useful to have a few recipes up my sleeve for when I do need to bake something for someone who has an intolerance or has coeliac disease.
Vicky at the Free From Fairy has come up with her own gluten free flour mix. Sadly it’s no longer on sale, but she has given the recipe on her site so you can make up your own. I’ve been following Vicky, who’s a fellow South West food blogger for a few years now. I find it a particularly exciting mix as it’s a wholegrain one.
Gluten-Free Flour
Vicky’s daughter has coeliac disease. Not content with the standard gluten free flours that were out there, Vicky uses a mix of ancient grains that are actively good for you.
Teff contains calcium, protein and resistant starch that helps to control blood-sugar levels. Sorghum is high in fibre, iron and protein and is also rich in antioxidants. Buckwheat is a flour I use regularly and it has high levels of vitamins, soluble fibre and proteins.
Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti
Gluten free flour is known for being a bit tricksy, but I’m sort of used to that as I’ve been cooking with wholemeal flour all my teenage and adult life. In the absence of gluten, Xanthan gum is often used to “bind” the ingredients together. I didn’t have any of that to hand, so I went ahead anyway.
The resulting bake has a slight tendency to crumble, but mostly holds together very well. It’s important to leave the biscotti to cool for at least 15 minutes after the first bake before attempting to cut it. Use a serrated bread knife to gently saw into slices and any bits that do crumble away are the cook’s perks. If gluten isn’t an issue, you can use wholemeal spelt instead.
I like my biscotti to have a little give in it. I know you’re meant to dunk them into a hot drink to soften them, but I don’t like to take chances with my teeth. If you like them slightly soft, then reduce the 2nd bake by 5 minutes and if you like them hard, bake for a further 5 minutes.
Even when the chocolate pistachio biscotti are cool and have been packed away, the scent of orange, cardamom and hot chocolate lingers delightfully on. It’s the smell of Christmas.
Other Christmas Biscuit Recipes You Might Like
- Amaretti (vegan)
- Chilli shortbread biscuits
- Chocolate hazelnut crackles
- Maamoul – Middle Eastern stuffed biscuits
- Matcha, chocolate & vanilla butter biscuits
- Pistachio biscuits with rose & almonds
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these chocolate pistachio biscotti, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti. PIN IT.
Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti with Orange and Cardamom (gluten-free)
Ingredients
- 130 g wholegrain gluten-free flour (or wholemeal spelt if gluten isn’t an issue)
- 40 g cocoa powder
- ½ tsp gluten-free baking powder
- 1 pinch sea or rock salt
- 175 g golden caster sugar
- 2 cardamom pods seeds extracted and ground with a pestle and mortar
- 1 organic orange
- 75 g pistachios roughly chopped
- 75 g dark chocolate chips
- 2 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.130 g wholegrain gluten-free flour, 40 g cocoa powder, ½ tsp gluten-free baking powder, 1 pinch sea or rock salt, 175 g golden caster sugar
- Grind the cardamom seeds with a pestle and mortar. Finely grate the orange zest and add both together with the nuts and chocolate chips.2 cardamom pods, 1 organic orange, 75 g pistachios, 75 g dark chocolate chips
- Stir and make a well in the centre.
- Break in the eggs and add the juice of half the orange.2 large eggs
- With a flat bladed knife, stir from the inside out until everything’s combined. If the mixture is too dry, add a little more orange juice.
- Bring the dough together with your hands.
- Divide into two and roll into logs about 4 cm in diameter.
- Place well apart on a lined or greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4) for twenty minutes or until golden.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes.
- Using a bread knife or other serrated knife cut the logs on the diagonal into 1 cm slices.
- Arrange the slices back on the baking sheet and bake at 150℃ (130℃ fan, 300℉, Gas 2) for about 15 minutes depending on how crisp you like them.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then store in cool place in an air tight container.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
These chocolate pistachio biscotti are my We Should Cocoa entry this month. If you have any recipes using chocolate this December, do please join in.
I’m also sending my Christmas biscuits off to Treat Petite at The Baking Explorer and Cakeyboi.
What a superb bake to receive at Christmas! And the gluten free flour mix certainly makes things easier when catering for coeliac friends. Thank you for linking up to Treat Petite!
Thanks Kat. The flour made fab biscotti 🙂
What amazing biscotti you have created Choclette. They sound delicious and look so beautiful. Pistachio always looks and tastes so vibrant against chocolate.
I love that you have sent them off as presents. I am sure they will be well-received xx
You’ve got to have a few pistachios at Christmas. I love their jewelled green. Have you tried Vicky’s flour? I really like it.
O I love biscotti! (and chocolate!) But the orange and cardamom are such unique additions!
Thanks Rebecca. I think these biscotti would have been good without them, but with them they are excellent 😉
Hi Choclette, cardamom is so good in baked goods, I bet these are delicious!
Thanks Cheri. I use cardamom a lot in my baking – as you say, it’s just so good 🙂
Oh yes!!! Choc orange. My fave ever combo. Plus cardamom. So chic!
Oh you know me Dom, chic to the core 😉
Ooh, I love cardamom and chocolate together. And chocolate and orange. What’s not to love about this recipe?
And gorgeous photos too! x
Thank you Nico. It’s all to love with these biscotti 🙂
I LOVE biscotti. There’s something so festive about it. Your flavour combinations sound great, I usually make a gingerbread version for Christmas.
Now that’s a lovely idea Claire. I’ve never had gingerbread biscotti before.
Wonderful! I love the colour contrast of dark choco and green nuts and of course the flavour too!
Yes, me too Angie. Most appropriate for Christmas 🙂
Wow, your biscotti look divine! I have never made them but a chocolate version with orange has my name all over it. I think the gluten free flour making it more crumbly is a good thing as they can be so hard!
Oh no, I don’t like them too hard either. These turned out to be a perfect texture for me 🙂
These look fab Choclette. I say I’m going to make biscotti every year but never get round to it. You make it look so easy, maybe this year will finally be the year I give it a try 🙂
Thanks Emma. Biscotti are dead easy, no butter, so no creaming needed. It’s pretty much a case of just mixing it all together 🙂
Considering how much I love biscotti it is really shameful how very seldom I bake them! These look amazing I would love one now with my cup of coffee
No that is a very good idea Lucy. Most have gone off in the post, but I think their might be one or two lurking in the biscuit tin 😉
Oooh this sounds yummy! I’ve always thought biscotti must be a bit of a faff, since you have to bake it twice, but actually you’ve made this sound really easy!
Very little faff Becca, they are one of the easiest biscuits to make – no creaming of butter or sugar needed at all 🙂
These look delicious but I really wish I could smell them – I love the smell of christmas (we made gingerbread houses last week and the house smelled so good but they are now given away)
Oh, I bet that was fun. I’ve never made a gingerbread house. I bet your house smelt gorgeous.
Oh my gosh! These look incredible. I think I can smell them in Devon! Or is that wishful thinking? I am certainly going to have to make these…what a fabulous recipe. And if any of your readers want to get hold of my flour they can either buy it on Amazon or check out my stockist page on my website freefromfairy dot com. I have a few stockists in Cornwall now! Happy Christmas and thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe!
Thanks very much Vicki. I love your flour. I’ll update my post now so people know where to get it and well done for getting at Archie Brown’s and at River Cottage.
Most beautiful biscotti, with all my favourite flavours. Perfect with a cup of latte
Thanks Galina. They certainly need a hot drink to accompany them.
Wonderful recipe. Nothing can go wrong with this flavour combination I think. Pistachio’s are horribly expensive these days, but fortunately we have Christmas as an excuse to buy some luxury ingredients, haven’t we ? Besides, these biscotti wouldn’t look half as nice without them.
The pistachios are an absolute necessity Henk, but as you say, for a Christmas special only 🙂