Crunchie Cirtusy Biscotti

Yay, my second ever foodie event! I am so glad I read Grab your fork last night. Otherwise I would never have realised that Sugar High Friday was today!

This months SHF is being hosted by Alice at My Adventures in the Breadbox. Thanks for the great theme Alice, whilst the citrus season in America might be closing, it is just hitting full swing here in Oz. So I am a very happy food blogger.

Alice has posted her recipe for Mile High Lemon Angel Food Cake it looks great!

I was a very lucky girl, as I had heaps of beautiful Mandarins and Lemons from my mothers garden (thanks mum) as well as a whole pile of fresh salad greens. I had been planning on just scoffing the mandarins, which taste nothing like their pale watery cousins at the fruit shop. I am still unable to buy mandarins from the fruit shop, after being spoilt as a child, I would have mandarin eating contests with mylittle sister. The contest involved seeing if we could put a whole mandarin in your mouth, and you won if you had to chew it the least amount of times to swallow it. Luckily they are/were very small mandarins.

I really wanted to make some mandarin and lemon curd, and put use this as a filling in a sponge. Yum. But, I didnt have all the ingrediants, and I would have to contend with my oven of hotness +2.. hmm not a good choice, I would have been way to sad to see my poor sponge burnt to a crisp. I have been wanting to try my hand at biscotti for ages, and they *should* be much more resilliant than a cake. Well were they good? They are fantastic, they have the most beautiful citrus taste, crunchy and so easy. Perfect.

Mandarin, Lemon and Pumpkin Seed Biscotti
Remove rind (with no pith attached) and thinly slice from citrus to total aprox 1/4 cup (I used 3 small mandarins and 1 lemon)
1/4 cup of juice
1/4 cup of raw castor sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup of raw castor sugar
2 cups of plain flour
1 1/2 cups of nuts ( I used pumpkin seed, although I would have used almonds and dark choclate chips if I had them)

Put Rind, juice and sugar(small amount) in a saucepan, and simmer til the rind becomes transparent.

Beat 2 eggs and sugar til thick, when the rind is finished, slowly beat the syrup and rind into the egg mixture.

Add flour and nuts, stir til mixed. Knead a couple of times to ensure it is together. (the mixture is sticky)

Shape two even sized logs on a baking tray. Clean you hands and with them just damp, smooth the surface of the logs. (I covered the top of mine in demerera sugar for a nice crunch)

Bake in 170C oven for 25 mins til firm. Remove and allow to cool. Slice into 1 cm slices. Bake at 130C for 25 mins til golden on both sides.

To Serve: A fresh coffee, 1 freshly peeled mandarin and a couple of biscotti. Yum!