Vegan Pistachio Biscotti

I came up with this Vegan Pistachio Biscotti recipe because of my father-in-law. Roberto was Roman and it is largely due to him that I started baking at all. He baked massive blueberry muffins (hence my obsession with jumbo muffins) and cherry pies. But he was probably most well-known for his little biscotti. I say “little” because his were never those obscenely large batons masquerading as Italian cookies inside coffee shops. Not only are store bought biscotti too big, they are often times dry and hard enough to damage your teeth.

Roberto’s biscotti were sufficiently petite to enjoy in one sitting. While they always possessed the characteristic “crunch” of a cookie, their centers were chewy enough to transmit both flavor and depth—two things often lacking in mass produced biscotti. In other words, if you want the kind of biscotti that will break your window, these Vegan Pistachio Biscotti are not for you.

Now, I could never quite master his trick for making them exactly the right balance of crunch to chew. Something in the drying process. But I have to say, these Vegan Pistachio Biscotti are the only ones I’ll eat—not only because they’re vegan, but now that Roberto is no longer with us, these are truly the next best thing.