POPPY SEED BISCOTTI WITH LEMON DRIZZLE
“Lockdown day #403.”
- 125 ml (½ cup) oil
- 250 ml (1 cup) sugar
- 455 g (3¼ cups) cake flour
- 3 large eggs
- 15 ml (3 teaspoons or 1 tablespoon) baking powder
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) poppy seeds
- 1 lemon
- Lemon drizzle:
- 250 ml (1 cup) icing sugar, sifted
- 30 ml lemon juice with the zest in it
Zest a lemon and squeeze the juice out. Use half the zest and juice for the dough. Keep the rest of the zest and 30 ml of the juice for the lemon glaze.
Preheat the oven to 190 °C.
Grease a cookie sheet or line it with baking paper (I use tin foil and spray it lightly with non-stick spray).
In a medium bowl (or a Kenwood bowl) whisk the eggs, sugar, lemon juice, zest and oil together until it is well blended. Combine the flour and baking powder, stir into the egg mixture to form a heavy dough. If it is too soft to shape into two or three rolls; then put the dough into a large disposable piping bag, cut the tip off (I cut a 3 cm opening as I wanted small diameter biscotti) and squeeze two or three logs onto the cookie sheet.
It will not expand a lot. I get three logs on a 56 x 35 cm baking sheet. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool. When it is cool enough to handle, slice each log crosswise into 2 cm slices.
Place the slices back onto the baking sheet on their cut sides. Bake for another 6 – 10 minutes on each side. The sides should be lightly toasted and the biscotti dried out.
Take it out of the oven and cool completely before icing.
Pack the biscotti upright next to one another before starting with the lemon icing.
Lemon drizzle:
Heat the juice in microwave until hot. Add the lemon juice to the icing sugar and stir quickly to dissolve, making sure it is lump free. Spoon the icing into a small disposable piping bag. Ensure the opening is securely closed (use an elastic band) before cutting a tiny bit off the tip.
Drizzle the icing backwards and forwards across the biscotti.
Allow to dry completely before packing it away into an airtight container.
Recipe and photo: Elsabie Templeton
