I Eat Green

Leda Meredith is the author of The Locavore’s Handbook: The Busy Person’s Guide to Eating Local on a Budget. Her previous book, Botany, Ballet, & Dinner from Scratch: A Memoir with Recipes, chronicled her 250-mile diet eating almost exclusively foods grown, foraged, and raised within 250 miles of New York City. She is an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden specializing in edible and medicinal plants. Leda is the recipient of Adelphi University’s Teaching Excellence award. She also has a 30+-year career as a dancer, choreographer, and dance writer. You can follow Leda’s local foods adventures on her blog at www.ledameredith.com, and more about her dance career at www.ledameredith.net Gluten Free, Dairy Free Pecan and Chocolate Biscotti Dough 6 tablespoons coconut oil 2/3 cup granulated sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 tablespoons flax seed, ground 6 tablespoons water 2 cups GF Flour 3 tablespoons fair trade cocoa powder, Dutch-process preferred 1 ½ cups ground pecans 1/2 cup org, fair trade chocolate chips, mini chips preferred 2 tablespoons powdered sugar for sprinkling on top 1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) one large (about 18" x 13") baking sheet. 2) In a medium-sized bowl, beat the coconut oil, sugar, salt, vanilla, and baking powder until the mixture is smooth and creamy. 3) In a separate bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons of water. Stir until glutinous. Add to mixture. 4) At low speed of your mixer, add the GF flour, stirring until smooth; the dough will be sticky. Add the ground pecans 5) Divide the dough in half, leaving half in the bowl, and placing half on the prepared pan. Volume-wise, half the dough is a about 1 1/2 cups. 6) Shape the dough on the pan into a log that's about 14" long x 4" wide. Straighten the log, and press down, so that it is smooth on top and sides 7) Add the cocoa powder to the remaining dough in the bowl, stirring to combine. Stir in the chocolate chips. 8) Using wet fingers, spread the chocolate dough atop the vanilla dough, pressing it down. 9) Bake the dough for 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven, and cool on the pan for 20 minutes; Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F. 10) If you've used parchment on your baking sheet, use it to lift the biscotti off the sheet onto a flat surface. If you haven't used parchment, carefully lift the biscotti off the sheet onto a flat surface. Using a serrated knife or sharp chef's knife, cut the biscotti on the diagonal. 11) Spread the biscotti out, and put it back on the baking sheet. Return the biscotti to the oven, and bake them for 30 minutes more. 12) Remove the biscotti from oven. They will continue to dry out as they cool. 13) Sprinkle them once they're cool with the confectioners' sugar. Makes about 24 biscotti.