Banana Pecan Biscotti

This is a great recipe for the holidays. It reminds me of banana bread when it is baking in the oven, which always makes me feel like I am home with mom. I added a little maple flavoring to the recipe because whenever my mom made banana bread when I was living at home, she would always make a maple glaze to put over the top. It was the best part of the bread. In this case though, I opted for a dark chocolate drizzle for the top. Who wouldn't love that?

I adapted a cooking light recipe to create a delicious holiday biscotti perfect for gift giving. I just sent these and gingerbread biscotti to my brother who lives out of state. I will post the gingerbread recipe soon.

Banana Pecan Biscotti
adapted from Cooking Light

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 2 bananas)

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or canola)

1 teaspoon molasses (optional)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon maple flavor extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 large eggs

3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Cooking spray

Dark chocolate chips, melted (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Combine banana, oil, vanilla, maple, molasses and egg in a medium bowl; stir in flour mixture and pecans (dough will be sticky).

With a dough scraper or spatula divide dough into 4 parts. Scoop dough onto parchment lined baking sheets; shaping dough into 4 (8-inch-long) rolls with wet hands. Flatten to 1/2-inch thickness.

Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes. Remove rolls from baking sheet; cool 10 minutes on a wire rack. Cut each roll diagonally into 12 (1/2-inch) slices. Place slices, cut sides down, on baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 250°; bake 12 minutes. Turn cookies over; bake an additional 12 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; cool completely on wire racks.

Drizzle with dark chocolate if desired.

Banana Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Great Alternative to Banana Bread!

The classic dilemma that every good penny pinching frugal cook faces: What to do with all those over ripe bananas that you bought on sale. Of course banana bread is the first thing to come to mind, but sometimes it's good to challenge the usual way of thinking...

Since cookies are always on my mind, it wasn't a far stretch for me to think; What about Banana Biscotti? So I looked on line and found a recipe from Cooking Light which I changed up a bit. It is a good recipe but I knew it would need some enhancing after reading some of the reviews. The banana extract is essential even after increasing the amount of banana. If you don't have banana extract than I would suggest adding more pure vanilla.

The cookies were really good and actually tasted like you were eating a crunchy version of banana bread. And with only ONE TABLESPOON of oil in the whole recipe there is no need to feel the least bit guilty eating more than one! Good thing for me because the addition of the chocolate chips really make them absolutely addicting!

Note: If you still have ripe bananas left, just peel them, place them in a plastic freezer bag and freeze them. Just take them out of the freezer the night before you plan on using them and thaw them in the fridge. Or you could even keep them frozen and use them for smoothies!

Banana Chocolate Chip Biscotti
adapted from Cooking Light

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2/3 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 2 bananas)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon banana extract
1 teaspoon vanilla powder or extract
1 large egg
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Sift flour into a medium bowl. Combine the flour, baking powder, vanilla powder and salt. Combine banana, oil, sugar, banana and vanilla extracts ( if using), and egg in a medium bowl; stir in flour mixture and pecans (dough will be sticky).

While still in bowl, divide dough in half. Spoon each 1/2 of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet; shaping each 1/2 of dough into 2 (8-inch-long) rolls with a rubber spatula. Flatten to 1/2-inch thickness.

Bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Remove rolls from baking sheet; cool 10 minutes on a wire rack. Cut each roll diagonally into 12 (1/2-inch) slices. Place slices, upright, on baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 300°; bake 30 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; cool completely on wire racks.