The Best Vegan Biscotti Recipe with Roasted Almonds
You’ll never guess the vegan egg replacement in this traditional biscotti recipe, it’s low in oil and yields a perfect vegan biscotti texture.
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Perfect ingredient replacements for vegan cookie recipes can be impossible to nail down. Most of the time that simple swap doesn’t get the results we hope for. Butter and eggs are main ingredients in most biscotti recipes, making the best vegan version a challenge to create. This recipe utilizes a secret ingredient swap for the eggs that delivers unbelievable results, and is low in fat like a traditional biscotti.
How to Make the Best Vegan Cookie Recipes
Understanding the best way to replace the butter and eggs in recipes requires a little bit of food science knowledge. Better chefs than me have already figured out how different amounts of ingredients in a cookie recipe affects the final outcome. There are comprehensive picture charts so one can see how too much or too little butter changes the texture. The same information is available for how the amount of egg changes the cookie results. I find that judging what a cookie vegan cookie recipe might need based upon these charts is most helpful.
Plant-based butters don’t always have the same water content as regulated dairy butters. Also, the milk solids in the butter have an effect on dough texture that plant-based butters don’t replicate. Eggs give baked goods properties that are difficult to copy also. We can adjust a recipe to satisfy the correct amount of overall moisture, and supplement anything necessary to perfect the final texture. Flax eggs, applesauce, and banana don’t give the best texture or shelf life, so we need an alternative for vegan cookie recipes and vegan biscotti recipes.
The Secret to Making These Biscotti Vegan
The basic recipe for making vegan biscotti usually starts with vegan butter. I find that the texture of these turn out more like vegan cookie recipes than the crisp bite of a traditional biscotti recipe. If you prefer a soft buttery biscotti over a traditional biscotti recipe, I’ve got one coming soon to link here. Plus, any of the specialty biscotti recipe flavor additions can be added to either biscotti dough basic recipe.
The traditional biscotti recipe differs in that it contains a small amount of oil instead of butter. This difference means that our vegan biscotti recipe is even more dependent on a suitable replacement for the texture that eggs would play. Aquafaba has worked great for me, and made some of the best vegan baked goods that I’ve made or sampled recently.
What is Aquafaba and How Can It Replace Eggs?
Aquafaba is the name given to the liquid in a can of chickpeas in the plant-based and vegan food world. The term comes from the Latin for water (aqua) and bean (faba) and isn’t exclusive to only chickpeas. Some other bean waters might be preferable to your tastes or recipe, I’ve read that light kidney beans and cannelini beans also work. We’ll stick with chickpea aquafaba for this recipe since it works really well as an egg replacement in vegan cookies and biscotti.
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When whipped up into a meringue consistency, aquafaba makes an even stronger replacement for eggs in recipes for vegan baked goods. Aquafaba can be whipped to the soft peaks and stiff peaks necessary for recipes that call for them, although the process can be slightly more difficult than with egg whites. You can even make vegan macaroons and meringue cookies with aquafaba. I find that a strong hand mixer, extra credit for one with fancy beaters like the one above, levels the playing field enough that vegan meringue isn’t out of reach for the average home baker.
Other related recipes you’ll love:
Ingredients for The Best Vegan Biscotti Recipe
- All Purpose Flour - this is the traditional choice, although you can use a whole wheat pastry flour or your favorite one for one gluten-free flour blend
- Organic White Sugar - white sugars aren’t always vegan as some are filtered with bone char, if it’s labeled organic it’s guaranteed to be vegan
- Aquafaba - the liquid reserved from a can of chickpeas
- Neutral Oil - any clear neutral oil would work in this recipe, I prefer expeller pressed canola oil or avocado oil
- Almond, Anise, or Vanilla Extract - the choice here is up to your personal preference for flavor
- Baking Powder - this leavening agent gives the cookie enough rise to not be too dense
- Salt - a little bit of salt in a recipe to enhance the flavor and complexity of the other ingredients
- Roasted Almonds - roasted almonds work better than raw almonds in a biscotti recipe
This biscotti recipe doesn’t use any butter, so it’s very light and refreshing for a healthy snack. The flour used in this recipe is the usual all purpose flour. Sometimes bread flour works in a cookie recipe to help with thickness and heft. It’s important for bigger cookies with a lot of fat in the recipe, but it’s not needed for these biscotti. In fact, this recipe would work well if you swapped the all purpose flour for a whole wheat pastry flour or even a gluten-free flour blend.
Instructions for The Best Vegan Biscotti Recipe
- Whip aquafaba and organic white sugar together in a bowl until the mixture incorporates with enough air to increase in volume and thickness. Five minutes on high should give enough thickness to cling to the beaters and be slow to drip off.
- Add the oil and flavor extract to the mixture.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Then, fold a third of it into the bowl with the wet ingredients.
- Fold another third of the sifted dry ingredients into the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients.
- Fold the remining dry ingredients, together with the almonds, into the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients.
- Chill the dough to rest for 15 minutes while your oven preheats to 350F/175C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Turn the dough out onto the parchment paper in the shape of a long bar, the dough will be tacky so this is best done in several smaller scoops of dough in a line down the middle that can be shaped and smoothed with a dough scraper. (Brush the dough with a bit of oil or aquafaba for a browned and crisp surface)
- Bake for 30 minutes, turning halfway through for even doneness, then remove to cool for 15 minutes on the baking sheet. Reduce the oven to 300F/150C.
- Slice the biscotti with a sharp knife and place the sliced biscotti back onto the parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake the sliced biscotti a second time at 300F/150C for 5-10 minutes a side, depending on preference for crispness. Remove from the oven, cool, and enjoy.
- For an extra touch of indulgence, consider dipping the cooled biscotti in melted chocolate or drizzling them with it before serving. This not only adds a delicious chocolate flavor but can also help cover any shallow cracks on the biscotti’s surface.
Serving Suggestions and Tips For Storage
These biscotti are fabulous served warm right out of the oven, although they can be served any time later. They stay fresh for several days sealed in an airtight container at room temperature. If the biscotti get too crisp for your liking, they can be microwaved for a few seconds to soften them up.
These vegan biscotti don’t keep longer than a few days, four or five at most. They also do not refrigerate or freeze well either.
More Vegan Biscotti Recipes To Try
All of the various flavored vegan biscotti recipes are made starting with a base of The Best Vegan Biscotti Recipe here, plus additional ingredients. You could also add the additional ingredients to the Buttery Vegan Biscotti Recipe base instead if you prefer. (Recipes will go live and be linked below, coming April-May 2024)
- Lemon Pistachio Vegan Biscotti Recipe
- Cranberry Gingerbread Vegan Biscotti Recipe
- Olive Oil and Orange Vegan Biscotti Recipe
- Eggnog Vegan Biscotti Recipe
- Chocolate Chip Vegan Biscotti
- Pumpkin Spice Vegan Biscotti
- Mexican Chocolate Vegan Biscotti
- Carrot Cake Vegan Biscotti
- Chocolate Espresso Vegan Biscotti
- Gluten Free Vegan Biscotti
Check out these other recipes for great vegan cookies:
The Vegan Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - Amazing Upgraded Recipe
Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
FAQs
Try some measure for measure gluten free flour in this recipe, and let me know how it turns out if you make them before I get a chance!
Get the Recipe The Best Vegan Biscotti Recipe with Roasted Almonds
Ingredients
Ingredients for The Best Vegan Biscotti Recipe
- 150 grams organic white sugar
- 100 ml aquafaba
- 2 tbsp clear neutral oil
- 1 tsp almond extract, or anise extract/vanilla extract
- 240 grams all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 100 grams roasted almonds
Equipment
Instructions
Instructions for The Best Vegan Biscotti Recipe
- Whip aquafaba and organic white sugar together in a bowl until the mixture incorporates with enough air to increase in volume and thickness. Five minutes on high should give enough thickness to cling to the beaters and be slow to drip off.
- Add the oil and flavor extract to the mixture.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Then, fold a third of it into the bowl with the wet ingredients.
- Fold another third of the sifted dry ingredients into the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients.
- Fold the remining dry ingredients, together with the almonds, into the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients.
- Chill the dough to rest for 15 minutes while your oven preheats to 350F/175C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Turn the dough out onto the parchment paper in the shape of a long bar, the dough will be tacky so this is best done in several smaller scoops of dough in a line down the middle that can be shaped and smoothed with a dough scraper. (Brush the dough with a bit of oil or aquafaba for a browned and crisp surface)
- Bake for 30 minutes, turning halfway through for even doneness, then remove to cool for 15 minutes on the baking sheet. Reduce the oven to 300F/150C.
- Slice the biscotti with a sharp knife and place the sliced biscotti back onto the parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake the sliced biscotti a second time at 300F/150C for 5-10 minutes a side, depending on preference for crispness. Remove from the oven, cool, and enjoy.
- For an extra touch of indulgence, consider dipping the cooled biscotti in melted chocolate or drizzling them with it before serving. This not only adds a delicious chocolate flavor but can also help cover any shallow cracks on the biscotti's surface.
