Cornmeal adds a wonderful crisp texture and pale yellow hue to these pistachio cranberry biscotti, the dunking cookie you'll enjoy any time of year. They are the perfect addition to your Christmas cookie platters!
Have you ever tried adding cornmeal flour to your biscotti? A dear friend recently shared with me that her favorite biscotti have cornmeal in them. I knew instantly this is something I would love, and I hope you do too!
And so I decided to adapt my mom's classic biscotti recipe to include some cornmeal. Cornmeal adds a wonderful, satisfying crisp texture to biscotti that is a must try!
I chose to add a combination of pistachio and dried cranberries to my biscotti. I love this combination particularly around the holiday season. They are so festive looking!
But you can feel free to swap out these ingredients for other possible combinations such as: almonds; hazelnut and chocolate chips or even anise seed. No matter which add-ins you choose to include, cornmeal biscotti are a must try!
Pistachio Cranberry Cornmeal Biscotti Ingredient List
- Cornmeal flour: choose fine or medium ground cornmeal for the best results. Coarse cornmeal will result in a crumbly cookie.
- Pistachios: unsalted, roasted pistachios.
- Avocado oil: or oil of your choice such as vegetable; cannola or olive oil.
- Orange zest: may be substituted with lemon zest
The following are step by step instructions with images to guide you through this recipe. Please scroll to the end of this post for the detailed printable recipe card.
How to make Pistachio Cranberry Biscotti with Cornmeal
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs; sugar; and oil until pale and frothy. Stir in the vanilla extract and orange zest.
- Add sifted flour; cornmeal; baking powder and salt.
- Stir until just combined.
- Stir in the pistachios and cranberries until thoroughly distributed in the dough.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer half the dough to the baking sheet and roughly shape into a log, approximately 12 x 5 inches. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bake for 30 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and let sit until cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes.
Top Tips
- This cornmeal biscotti dough is quite sticky, this is normal. Do not add more flour to the dough! You may lightly dampen your hands with water in order to shape it. Don't fuss too much over the shape, it will puff up nicely in the oven.
- My two loaves touched slightly during baking however I was able to separate them once once out of the oven. You may opt to use two baking sheets instead of one.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees F. Use a sharp knife to cut into approximately 1-inch biscotti.
- Place on 2 baking sheets and return to the oven to bake until crisp, about 15 minutes per side. Turn off the oven and leave the biscotti until they are completely dried out and crisp, 1-2 hours.
- Let cool before serving.
Recipe FAQs
Swap out the pistachio and cranberries and add other ingredients such as almonds; raisins; a combination of hazelnuts and chocolate chips; or anise seeds.
Since they are dry, biscotti keep for weeks at room temperature in an airtight container.
You may freeze biscotti for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature before serving.
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on my blog please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how much you enjoyed it in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
More Italian biscotti recipes!
Pistachio Cranberry Cornmeal Biscotti
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 6 tbsp. avocado oil may be replaced with oil of your choice such as vegetable; cannola or olive oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- zest of 1 orange
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cornmeal flour fine or medium grind
- 2.5 tsp. baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup pistachios unsalted, roasted
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs; sugar; and oil until pale and frothy. Stir in the vanilla extract and orange zest.
- Sift together the flour; cornmeal; baking powder and salt and add to the bowl with the wet ingredients.
- Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined.
- Stir in the pistachios and cranberries until thoroughly distributed in the dough.
- Transfer half the dough on the the baking sheet and roughly shape into a log approximately 12 x 5 inches.
- Note: my two loaves touched slightly during baking however I was able to separate them once once out of the oven. You may opt to use two baking sheets instead of one.
- This cornmeal biscotti dough is quite sticky, this is normal. Do not add more flour to the dough! You may lightly dampen your hands with water in order to shape it. Don't fuss too much over the shape, it will puff up nicely in the oven.
- Bake for 30 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and let sit until cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees F. Use a sharp knife to cut into 1 inch biscotti.
- Place on 2 baking sheets and return to the oven to bake until crisp, about 15 minutes per side. Turn off the oven and leave the biscotti until they are completely dried out and crisp, 1-2 hours.
- Let cool before serving.
Notes
- Swap out the pistachio and cranberries and add other ingredients such as almonds; raisins; a combination of hazelnuts and chocolate chips; or anise seeds.
- Since they are dry, biscotti keep for weeks at room temperature in an airtight container.
- You may freeze biscotti for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature before serving.
Sarah I
Quick question re Step 11: should we flip each biscotto over or rotate the pans? Thanks!
Nadia
Hello Sarah, yes I do flip them over thanks for pointing that out, I will update. Thank you!