Biscotti are a wonderful treat any time of year, but especially at holiday time. Perfect for dipping in hot cocoa (vegan, of course!) or tea and delightful for giving because they are dry, crunchy and can stay for a long period of time. No need to feel pressured into eating them all in one night!
Preheat oven to 325ºF and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, applesauce, oil, orange juice, zest, vanilla and almond extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. Fold in the cherries and pistachios. The dough will be thick, use your hands, if necessary, to mix together.
Using floured hands, turn the dough onto a baking sheet and shape into two logs that are about 3 inches wide and about 1 inch thick. With a sharp knife, score the dough with 1/2 inch diagonal cuts. (Scoring means to make shallow cuts to make cutting easier later.) Sprinkle the logs with regular or decorative sugar and bake for about 25 minutes, or until they starting to get slightly browned. They should not be fully baked at this point. Remove tray from oven and decrease the temperature to 300ºF, and let the logs cool for about 15 minutes.
In this next step, you’ll slice the cooled logs into cookies and bake them again, but cutting carefully is the key here. I’ve found that using a large serrated knife, sawing back and forth till you’re about halfway through the cookie then pressing firmly straight down to cut through the rest works best. If you cut straight down from the beginning, you’ll crack and break the top of the log and if you use the sawing motion the whole way through, you end up breaking the top of the cookie once you get down toward the bottom crust. See what works best for you.
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Lay the cookies cut side down on the baking tray and bake for 10 minutes, until slightly browned, then gently flip the cookies to the other side and bake for about 5 minutes more. Remove from oven and cool.
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Push all the cookies close together so they touch. Using a double boiler, or a small bowl over a pot of simmering water, melt chocolate chips. Using a spoon, drizzle melted chocolate by moving your hand back and forth over the biscotti in horizontal motion. Sprinkle the chocolate with decorative sugar or crushed nuts before it sets. Chill to harden the chocolate. Serve.