Hi Vegetarian Carnivores! Because I am Indian by heritage, I grew up drinking a lot of chai. My parents still drink around 4 cups a day. That’s so much tea! But the one good thing I took away from that was exposure to a ton of chai time snacks. For my parents, they eat a bunch of crunchy snacks during their afternoon tea time. Things like Indian biscuits, roasted peanuts, and chakri (if you know, you know). One of the best crunchy snacks to have with chai is biscotti- Indians have the “dunk all the cookies and biscuits into chai” gene embedded into our DNA. Before my vegan days, when I didn’t really know what went into my food, I’d really enjoy dunking biscotti and other crunchy biscuits into my tea. So when I found out that it is actually not vegan, I knew I had to come up with a solution. These vegan biscotti are a healthier version, and packed with a ton of flavor. You’re sure to love them.
What are biscotti?
Biscotti are nothing but twice baked cookies. Once you make the initial dough, you shape it into a bread dough shape and bake it off for its initial setting. Then you take it out and let it cool. Cut it into the signature biscotti shape (just widthwise) and bake it off again. You will get a strong aroma and may feel as if your biscotti is burning. Don’t worry- it is not burning. It is just getting rid of all the moisture so you get a nice and crunchy result at the end.
Why you’ll love these sweet potato biscotti
These biscotti combine all the lovely fall flavors and packs them into one bite sized snack. Roasted sweet potato lends a slightly caramelized flavor and gets rid of the need for a ton of added sugar. Fall flavors like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice add warmth to the dish. Pumpkin seeds and goji berries add a pleasant textural change, as well as pack a serious nutritional punch. If you want you can use wheat flour instead of all purpose and I expect (from past experience) it will hold up well, though I haven’t tried it that way myself. You can make it even healthier that way.
Then lastly, we can’t forget a generous coating of melted dark chocolate.
All in all, protein, magnesium, zinc from the pumpkin seeds, vitamin A and fiber from the sweet potato, an antioxidant punch from the goji berries, and trace minerals from the dark chocolate make this dish actually a pretty nutritious snack. Obviously I’m not telling you to eat these biscotti day in and day out, so don’t go doing that because I said so! But in the grand scheme of healthier desserts this one goes a long way.
How to make vegan biscotti
Biscotti, like I mentioned above, are twice baked cookies. Traditionally they are made with all the same ingredients as cookies, like eggs and butter. So it stands to reason that these would be no different than that scenario. The only variation is that we’re getting these nice and crispy by getting out all the moisture, and then dressing them up with melted dark chocolate. It’s a flavorful and pretty nutritious, depending on what you choose to dress it up.
For this recipe we are using sweet potatoes. I always prefer to roast them myself and use that puree, but canned can work in a pinch if you need it to.
Ingredients (10 pieces)
Biscotti
- 1/2 cup sweet potato puree (see notes below for roasting)
- 1/4 cup vegan butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseeds + 3 tbsp water (flax egg)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups all purpose flour
Toppings
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1/4 cup goji berries
Instructions
- If roasting sweet potatoes from scratch, roast for 1 hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Then turn heat down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Sift flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, ground cloves, and baking powder together.
- In a separate cup, mix the flaxseeds and water and let it sit for a couple minutes until gelatinous.
- Cream butter and sugar together using an electric whisk. Add in sweet potato puree, vanilla and flax egg and continue whisking.
- Slowly add the flour mixture and combine until the mixture is even but not overmixed. We don’t want to develop the gluten.
- Add the pumpkin seeds and goji berries to the mixture and give it one last stir to combine.
- Roll it into a “loaf of bread” shape and bake for 30 minutes. Take out and let it cool on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes.
- Cut the loaf into the biscotti shape as shown in the images and bake again for 30 minutes. You may notice a strong smell that feels like the biscotti is burning but that is normal- your biscotti is fine.
- Take it out of the oven and let it cool on a rack.
- Combine the coconut oil and dark chocolate and microwave at intervals of 15 seconds until it is completely melted.
- When the biscotti is cool enough to handle, coat the top 1 inch of each piece with chocolate sauce and let it dry.
