Chocolate, orange and pistachio biscotti

These are the biscotti that Ed Burns made on the Comic Relief Great British Bake Off.  They are very moreish!

• 100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 100g shelled pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
• 3 oranges, zest only
• 115g unsalted butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 large free range eggs at room temperature, beaten
• 275g plain flour
• good pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper or use a silicone baking mat on top.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Put sugar and butter in a bowl and mix well (either in electric mixer or by hand) until light and fluffy.

Slowly beat in the eggs, until fully incorporated.  Add the orange zest and mix.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl and mix well forming a soft dough (may be a little sticky).

Add the chocolate and the pistachio nuts and stir until just combined.

Divide the dough into 2 halves and put onto the baking sheet.  Form each half into a long log shape, approximately 25cm in length and 5-8cm wide.

Bake for 25mins.  Remove from oven and leave to cool for 10mins.

Slice up each piece of baked dough into 1-1.5cm slices, a bread knife is usually best as the dough is a little soft.  Gently tip the fragile slices over so they are cut side down on the sheet and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and place to cool on a wire rack.  Make sure they are firm before removing them and putting in an airtight container.  

You can decorate them like in the picture by melting some more dark chocolate and drizzling it over.

Orange and Cranberry Cupcakes

• 120g plain flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 oranges (zested and juiced into 2 portions)
• 40g unsalted butter
• 120ml made up of milk and one of the orange juice portions
• 1 egg
• 1/2 390g cranberry sauce
• 50g sweetened dried cranberries chopped

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

Put in a bowl the flour, sugar, baking powder, orange zest and the butter and mix until it forms a slightly dry breadcrumb like mixture.

Add the milk and orange juice combination and beat again until just combined.  Next add the cranberry sauce and the dried cranberries.

Add the egg and beat again for a few minutes until the mixture is smooth.  Divide the mixture out between 12 cupcake cases and cook for 20 minutes or until golden brown and the cupcake springs back when touched.  Leave to cool.

• 250g icing sugar
• 80g unsalted butter (soft)
• 25ml milk and the other orange juice portion combined

Put the icing sugar, butter and milk mixture in a bowl and mix together.  The trick with frosting is the longer you beat it, the lighter and fluffier it gets, so try and beat for at least 5 minutes and then spread on top of cupcakes or pipe on to cakes.

To decorate I used candy cane sprinkles and some more chopped cranberries