Maggie's Biscotti

Okay, I made 3 batches of these, trying tweaks to make the ingredients I have work. I ended up with 1 batch of granola and 2 batches of pretty decent biscotti. Thanks to some very helpful tips from Scott123 and Chris of Honeyville Grains at the atkinsalltheway cooking forum, I think I've got something workable now.

The changes are just because I have slightly different ingredients than called for in Maggie's recipe. It's possible that my "long chain" WPI is different than the locarber.com WPI. And, I only have whole nut flours which are drier and have more fiber than blanched nut flour.

So, slightly increasing both the WPI and liquid helped to get rid of the excess crumbling.

Also, I discovered part of the problem was procedural. When I got granola, it partly was because I added the sliced almonds ~last~ instead of adding them before adding the liquid as in Maggie's recipe. DUH! It's just an old habit to add the nuts last (most of my cookie recipes say to add the nuts last). Well, adding them last definitely gives you a very crumbly dough that bakes up more like granola - even after increasing the WPI and liquid.

Anyhoo, here's the recipe amended to use Honeyville WPI and whole nut meal.

100 g. Honeyville Wheat Protein Isolate (about 5/8 c. or 1/2 c. + 2 TBS)
60 g. Trader Joe's Almond Meal (about 1/2 c. )
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cardamon seeds (didn't have anise seeds)
60 g sliced toasted almonds (about 1/2 c. )

1/3 c. raw slightly beaten egg (about 1.5 large eggs)
2 TBS melted butter
25 drops of Sweetzfree liquid Splenda (equals the sweetness of 1 c. sugar)
1 TBS Da Vinci Syrup (any complementary flavor)

Mix and bake as per Maggie's Biscotti Recipe.

The cookies still have a slightly gritty after-texture - possibly from the nut skins in the nut flour, which I doubt because my almond flour cakes are not gritty. Or maybe the WPI grains dissolve less than flour grains - who knows? In the next round of experiments, I'll probably try to get a blanched almond flour. And, I think I'll let the dough rest for an hour or so before baking, hoping that gives whatever is making the texture gritty time enough to soften.

__________________
~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

I'm glad you've got something going, Teel.

I checked out the thread on the issue, but still don't really know whether I've got long or short or what, in terms of the WPI I get from trish. Here's the nutritional breakdown for the product I'm using: One cup = about 55 gms.



Don't know if that helps or not. I wish I could reach through the computer screen and offer you one. I know it's not just me, since I've now offered these to dozens of people (all flavors have been sampled), almost none of whom is a low carb person and I've gotten nothing but compliments.

I HATE when they ask for the recipe. It turns into a long conversation about the "strange" ingredients .... I tell them "you don't know the half of it."

p.s. On fitday, it breaks out to be 97% protein.

__________________

LOL! I wish we could reach through the screen and each hand the other a couple of cups of the two different WPIs to play with!

According to the nutrition labels (and I don't think those are always accurate), we have two very different substances.

It's a little difficult to compare volumes because, depending on how well packed it is, a given weight of flour could measure quite differently. Still the difference here seems to be HUGE! Far more than could be attributed to simple settling or fluffing of the flour.

For one thing, 55 gms is less than half a cup of the Honeyville WPI.

Honeyville WPI Nutrition Facts:
Serving size 28 g (in my measuring cup, that's not quite a 1/4 cup)

Calories: 110
Calories from Fat: 15
Fat: 1.5 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholestrol: 0 mg
Sodium: 0 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 1 g
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Sugars: -- g
Protein: 24 g

__________________
~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

Well, .... hmmm. This goes with what I've said about this stuff reminding me of talcum powder, in terms of it's characteristics, including wet-ability.

I'd LOVE to swap samples with you to see what the heck each of us is working with.

__________________

I just checked again and weighed a measured cup and it IS 55 gms, so that part's accurate anyway. LOL!

__________________

i have a coment about the gritty texture.. i kinda like it.. i love the biscotti.. i realy need to make some.. to hve something around when i need it.. but i need to freeze them so i cant eat the entire batch in one day.. or even two..

i have made so many difrent flavors.. i have left out the anis or what ever.. and have used hazelnut flavoring and have done one chocolate hazelnut and half cherry flavor.. THAT WAS AWSOME!also bought some LOW carb semi sweet morsals and diped the tips in chocolate..

__________________
01/02/04-248{ 4/29/04- 218} 6/30/04- 204
7-05-04 198 8/30/04 - 190 (got lost after that-)
4/03/08- 261 -
Goal-140-145

ummmm.... now I could go for a chocolate dip! :cook:

__________________
~~~Teelbee
Back to GOAL!!!
start weight: 176/goal range: 137-134/now: 138
Reached goal in Aug. 2003 - 4rd year of maintenance.

Yes, I've used the "Minicarb" brand of semi-sweet chocolate chips for this and other things. I like them because they are sweetened with splenda and contain no sugar alcohols, yet they are very good, IMHO. They taste right and melt right and not bad at all on my BGL's. Nice product.

Ingredients: chocolate liquor, pollydextrose, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, lecithin, sodium bicarbonate, sucralose & vanilla.

I got them from netrition.


p.s. in the thread on the other board, one of the posters mentioned that whole almonds would work better than sliced in the almond biscotti recipe. I deliberately avoided whole almonds because I felt that the first big cookie might be a little fragile, and that whole almonds (being a bit harder than, say walnuts or pistachios) might "hang up" on the knife and cause the big cookie to fall apart. Haven't used whole nuts other than pistachios in my biscotti.

__________________