Almond Flour Biscotti
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My almond flour biscotti are crisp, chewy, and studded with pistachios and tender cranberries. They’re made in one bowl, and yes, they’re dunkable!
I was raised in a house where biscotti was a holiday staple. My mom would make a batch every week, and I think she was the one eating most of them!
She liked to test new versions of her classic gluten-free biscotti, and one of my favorites was her almond biscotti recipe. Now that I’m hosting Christmas this year, I can’t wait to make them.
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- Naturally sweetened with honey. Honey adds a subtle earthiness and gives the biscotti a gorgeous golden color.
- Fun to customize. My base recipe has pistachios and cranberries, but you can make a variety of other flavors. I’ll explain more later on.
- Perfect for dunking. I prefer black coffee since the biscotti are fairly sweet, but almond milk hot chocolate works too!
- Crispy, crunchy, and snappable. Just like this classic Italian cookie should be!
- Naturally gluten-free. And I’ll even give you tips on making them vegan.
Ingredients needed
- Almond flour. Not all almond flours are created equal, so stick with blanched almond flour instead of almond meal, which is made with flecks of almond skin and yields a darker, crumbly consistency.
- Pistachios and almonds. You can use just one or the other if you prefer.
- Baking soda. Gives the biscotti some rise and leavening.
- Salt. Elevates the flavor of the other ingredients.
- Cinnamon. For a delicate cinnamon flavor.
- Eggs. Room temperature eggs are best.
- Honey. For natural sweetness and moisture. Agave nectar can also be used, but I found maple syrup to be overpowering.
- Butter. Stick with unsalted butter softened to room temperature (since we’re already adding salt).
- Almond extract. To enhance the almond flavor! Alternatively, use vanilla extract.
- Dried cranberries. Optional, but I like them for flavor and color. Make sure they’re unsweetened.
How to make biscotti with almond flour
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Prep. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven.
Step 2- Mix the dough. Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In another large bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Gently whisk the dry into the wet and mix until you have a smooth dough. Fold in the cranberries.
Step 3- Shape. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and cut in half. Form two rectangular loaves about 1 inch in thickness.
Step 4- Bake. Place the loaves on the pan and bake until golden. It’s okay if the biscotti isn’t super crispy yet. Let them cool briefly, and reduce the oven heat.
Step 5- Second bake. Slice the loaves into equal slices and place them on the baking sheet. Bake until golden and crisp. Let them cool on a wire rack.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Make them vegan. Substitute the eggs for flax eggs (1 tablespoon of flax seed with 3 tablespoons of water per egg), use dairy-free butter and milk, and sub honey for agave.
- Adjust the bake time. Biscotti is a very forgiving recipe, and you can make them as thin, thick, long, or small as you desire. Just remember, the thinner you slice them, the less cooking time they’ll need.
- Use a sharp, serrated knife to slice the biscotti for the second bake.
- Don’t crank up the heat! As tempting as it may be, you need the second bake to be at a lower temperature. Almond flour can easily develop a burnt taste if overbaked.
- Prefer shiny biscotti? Brush a beaten egg over the loaf before slicing it.
Variations
- Chocolate. Add 1/4 cup cocoa powder and increase the honey by 2 tablespoons. Omit the dried fruit.
- Cranberry orange. Sub out half the nuts with extra cranberries and add 1 teaspoon of orange extract and 1 teaspoon of orange zest.
- Chocolate covered. Dip each of the biscotti in melted dark chocolate chips.
- Espresso. Add 1 teaspoon of espresso extract and omit the cranberries.
- Lemon. Add 2 tablespoons lemon zest and 1 teaspoon of lemon extract.
Storage instructions
To store: Store leftover biscotti at room temperature in a sealed container for 1 month.
To freeze: Place the biscotti in a ziplock bag and store it in the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw overnight.
Frequently asked questions
Traditional biscotti gets its crispy texture from being twice-baked and thinly sliced. This yields extra crunchy cookies.
If you use my keto honey as your sugar substitute, then yes, this can be considered keto biscotti as it is low carb. For even fewer carbs, omit the dried cranberries.
More holiday desserts
- Gluten-free Christmas cookies
- Peanut brittle
- Gingerbread blondies
- Prefer to bake with almond flour? Try my almond flour sugar cookies, almond flour cupcakes, and almond flour cake next.
Almond Flour Biscotti
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups almond flour blanched almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup pistachios sliced * See notes
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract can use vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170C/325F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk together your wet ingredients until combined. Gently fold in the dry ingredients into the wet, until fully incorporated. Fold through your cranberries at the end.
- Lightly flour a kitchen surface. Remove the dough from the bowl and form two equal portions. Using your hands, form two rectangular loaves, 1-inch in size.
- Place the two loaves on the lined pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown.
- Remove the loaves from the oven and let them cool for 25 minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 120C/250F.
- Slice up the two loaves into 1/2-inch biscotti, and place them on the lined baking sheet. Bake the biscotti for an additional 30 minutes per side.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely. This will firm up beautifully.
Arman, this was very delicious and easy to follow.
Thanks so much, Carol. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I love this recipe. I use maple syrup instead of honey but they arecamazing. So glad I found this
Love the almond flour Biscotti recipe.. request to suggest an eggless version of the same. Thanks in advance
Love this biscotti so much!
Love this biscotti so much!
My biscotti came out brown. I followed the recipe exactly as described. What went wrong?
Nothing went wrong 🙂 Almond flour biscotti tend to brown more than traditional wheat biscotti, even when baked correctly. I tested this recipe using blanched almond flour, but factors like the brand of almond flour, the natural sugars in honey, and the addition of cinnamon can all deepen the color. They also brown faster than they dry, which can make them look darker before they’re fully crisp. As long as they’re cooked through and crisp after cooling, a deeper golden-brown color is completely normal with this recipe.
Delicious
So welcome!
A winning biscotti recipe!
Thank you, Kim!
Awesomely delicious! I like this better than my standard biscotti recipe- crispy and just sweet enough. We drizzled with melted chocolate-yummmmyy! thank you for your recipes- every one I’ve tried so far is fabulous!
I wanted to make a low carb dessert and these almond flour biscotti are fabulous. I split the batch into 1/2 almond and 1/2 almond and dark chocolate chips. I did find that I had to leave them in the oven a bit longer (about 10 minutes) than 20 minutes for the second bake. They are just delicious and so easy to make. Thank you for another fabulous recipe.
Thank you for your recipe. Is it possible to use almond meal in place of almond flour?
Hi Margaret! You’re welcome! I tested this recipe using blanched almond flour, which gives the best texture and structure. Almond meal can work, but because it’s coarser and includes the skins, the biscotti will be darker and a bit more crumbly. If you do use almond meal, expect a slightly different texture, but the flavor will still be good.
This is the best almond flour biscotti recipe ever!
Is it possible to use a sweetener like Allulose instead of honey?
You can try and see!
I use monk fruit/erithritol and they are still delicious
I am new to making biscotti and watched several videos and reviewed several recipes before deciding to start with this one. I chose it because I had almond flour on hand but not enough regular white flour for a recipe. I substituted turbinado sugar for the honey and added orange zest and chopped cranberries along with toasted sliced almonds. I baked for 25 minutes, cooled 15 and they felt like they were done all the way through. But when I sliced, they were still really soft in the middle. So I sliced very carefully and baked them another 35 minutes on 250, flipping every 10 minutes until they seemed done. Topped them off by drizzling with dark chocolate. YUM!! My new addiction! ❤️ Thank you!
These were the best almond flour biscotti ever. Crispy and so much flavor.
The recipe is good and well written however, my biscotti spread significantly when in the oven for the first bake so they are more like thin cookies than biscotti. They still taste good! Because they spread so much, I cut the loaf in half lengthwise and then I cut each half loaf width wise into slices.
I made two loaves — one with just pistachios and one with pistachios and chocolate chips.
Thanks for the recipe. I will make these again for sure.