Pumpkin Biscotti!

Another milestone of my blogging career took place last night. It was pretty late and I was taking a break from writing a paper, browsing through recipes as usual. I was inspired to write an e-mail to the gluten-free pioneer Shauna James Ahern, a.k.a. the Gluten-Free Girl. For those of you who aren't familiar with the work of her and her husband, she has published cookbooks and has a wonderful blog, with gluten-free everything. In the gluten-free community, she's kind of a big deal.

I'm relatively proud of what this blog is becoming, and I wanted to share it with her and see if she had any feedback to offer. I figured I had nothing to lose and I wasn't really expecting a response. And yet, an e-mail from Shauna herself popped up in my inbox only two minutes after I hit send! She provided some words of encouragement and told me I'm "darling." Just about spilled hot jasmine tea all over myself! 

Hearing from the one and only gluten free girl was much more than I could have ever hoped for, but Shauna brought me a kind of happiness that I had never known until this happened:

PURE AWESOMENESS

Thanks to Shauna's generosity, I had over 1,000 page hits in less than twelve hours and I gained some new followers! I offer a warm welcome and thanks to you all!

To celebrate I bought myself some flowers and danced across the wood floors of my apartment in my socks.

Casper would have preferred catnip. 

Last night I had trouble sleeping from all the excitement and I made a shocking discovery; I haven't named my oven! My car's name is Bruce... my laptop's name is Phineas... and yet, my poor oven is nameless. Until now.

Allow me to introduce you all to Otis. He may not be much to look at, but he's a hard worker.

I had no idea if this pumpkin biscotti recipe would turn out, but thankfully it did! Hopefully my family will like it too!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Biscotti

inspired by this recipe

1 cup millet flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

2/3 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup almond meal

1/2 cup tapioca starch/flour

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup pumpkin purée

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 large eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup walnuts, chopped

Whisk together dry ingredients (excluding the brown sugar) in a large mixing bowl. Once uniform in color and well aerated, set aside. 

In a smaller mixing bowl combine brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs, butter, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth.

Slowly fold the wet ingredients into dry. Stir in walnuts.

Dough should be moist, but should hold form.

Form into a rectangular slab a little under an inch in width on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper or a silpat.

Bake for 20 minutes, remove from the oven, and allow the slab to cool for about 15 minutes. 

Cut the slab into biscotti using a sharp knife (make sure you don't do this on your silpat!).

Arrange on the baking sheet and bake for another 15-20 minutes.