Eggless Apricot Pistachio Orange Biscotti

         For this month's challenge for the Eggless Baking Group, Gayathri had chosen Apricot Pistachio Orange Biscotti from Baking Obsession. The recipe called for orange blossom water, which I couldn't find in Chennai, so I went ahead with the recipe, replacing the eggs with orange juice which I thought would also make up for the orange blossom water. However, I would like to try this recipe again using the orange blossom water which I hope to get soon on my US trip. Anyways, these biscottis turned out really good, but they were a little too sweet for my taste, I would reduce the sugar by a few tablespoons on my next attempt. Try them out, they are a great teatime or a mid-morning snack..

Need To Have

• All Purpose Flour Or Maida - 1 + 1/2 cup
• Granulated Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Melted Butter - 4 tablespoons
• Chopped Apricots - 1/2 cup
• Chopped Pistachios - 1/2 cup
• Orange Juice - 1/4 cup
• Baking Powder - 1 teaspoon
• Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon
• Salt - 1 small pinch

Method
         Sift the all purpose flour and the baking powder. Beat the butter and sugar, to this add the orange juice, salt, vanilla essence, mix well. To this add the flour mixture, mix well (I used my hands, if you have an electric mixer, you can use it). Finally mix in the chopped apricots and pistachios. Form a log and bake it on a greased tray for 25 minutes at 350F. Remove it, cool it, slice it, place the slices on the tray, bake it again for a second time for 15 minutes at 325F. Remove, cool well and store in an airtight container.

Note
The original recipe used 2 cups flour, 2 eggs and 1 cup sugar, I started with 1 cup flour, and used 1/4 cup orange juice instead of 1 egg and 1/2 cup sugar. The dough was too sticky, so I had to add another 1/2 cup flour.
Though I had used unsweetened Apricots and only 1/2 cup sugar for 11/2 cup flour, still I felt the biscottis were little too sweet.
As I am using the microwave oven in the convection mode for baking, the baking time varied a lot, if any of my readers are using the microwave for baking, I would love to get some advice and tips regarding using the oven.