Lemon-Ginger Biscotti

These lovely little cookies are a perfect snack with a cup of coffee or tea on a winter afternoon.

Lightly spoon 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour into measuring cups, leveling with a knife. Place the flour in a large bowl, and combine with 1 cup raw sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, and 1/4 tsp. salt.

Finely chop 1/4 cup of crystallized ginger, and stir into the flour mixture - check to make sure that the sugar used to crystallize the ginger is raw - your best bet is an organic brand such as Woodstock Farms: www.woodstock-farms.com

In a separate small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons grated lemon rind, 1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and the equivalent of 3 eggs using egg replacer (such as Ener-G). Add to the flour mixture, and stir until blended. The original recipe cautioned that the dough would still be crumbly, but mine was so crumbly as to be unworkable. I added an extra 2 tablespoons of water, since the original recipe had called for large eggs, hoping that the added moisture would make up the difference, and indeed, this idea seemed to work.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly 7 or 8 times (which I sort of fudged, again due to how crumbly my dough was).

Divide the dough in half, and shape each portion into a 9-inch long roll (this was delicate work, using a pinching/stretching motion until I achieved the desired length). Place the rolls on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, then flatten with your palm to 1-inch thick.

In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon water with the equivalent of one additional egg, and brush this mixture over the rolls. Sprinkle the rolls evenly with 1 tablespoon raw sugar. I mistakenly added this last bit of sugar to the water/'egg' mixture, instead of sprinkling it on top, but oh well! I suppose in brushing the mixture on, the sugar got in there still.

Bake the rolls at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. On a cutting board, slice each roll diagonally into 15 slices - as with the last time I made biscotti, my initial slices were a bit too thick, so my last few slices were quite slender; I recommend estimating the length more carefully than I did before you start slicing!

Place these sliced biscotti upright on the baking sheet (that is, with the water/'egg'-brushed side on top). Return to an oven reduced to 325 degrees and cook for 20 minutes.

Cool the biscotti completely on a wire rack - they will still be a bit soft in the middle when you first pull them from the oven, but will harden as they cool.

1 biscotto is 80 calories.

Cost:
all-purpose flour $3.99
crystallized ginger $5.99
lemon $0.79