Chocolate Almond Biscotti

This is something I have been waiting to make ever since the idea for this blog came to form.  I love biscotti, particularly with a cup of espresso.  While biscotti is another one of those ambiguous Italian foods that doesn't have a clear place of origin, it is a very commonly consumed dessert in Tuscany.    Twice baked, biscotti are a hard cookie that in Tuscany is typically eaten with Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine.

Personally, I was super excited to make biscotti.  This was my first attempt, and I was looking at it as a run through for the holiday season.  You can make all kind of biscotti, and my plan is to make several different kinds (cranberry with white chocolate, milk chocolate with orange flavor, white chocolate with crushed peppermint) and give them out in nice tins for Christmas gifts.  This recipe was definitely easy enough and delicious enough to make for the holidays!

Almond Biscotti

Adapted from Joy of Baking

-makes 15-18 biscotti-

Ingredients:

1 cup whole almonds

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

Process:

1. If your almonds are not already roasted - preheat the oven to 350.  Toast the almonds lightly for about 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 300 degreed.  Chop the almonds coarsely.
2. In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla and almond extracts.  Set aside.
3. In a the bowl of an electric mixer, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Mix for 30 seconds to combine.  Slowly add in the egg mixture.  Beat until a dough forms, adding the almonds about half way through. 
4. Grease a cookie sheet.  Put the dough onto the cookie sheet and form into a rectangle, about 3 to 4 inches wide and about 14 inches long.  The dough will expand when cooked.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes on a rack.  Using a cutting board and a serrated knife, cut the biscotti into slices about 1/2 inch thick.  To make them look fancier, you can cut them on a diagonal.
6. Return to the cookie sheet and bake for another 10 minutes.  Flip the biscotti over and bake 10 minutes on the other side.
7. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.  Either dip half the biscotti in the chocolate, or drizzle the chocolate over the biscotti.  Let the chocolate set before eating.

Ryan's rating of Almond Biscotti - 4

Comments

[Jeanne]

Can't wait to hear which flavor combinations you like best! All the ones you listed sound so good.

[Shannon]

This looks great! This is random (and probably a very dumb question), but how do you make white chocolate??

[Sue]

Thats not a dumb question at all! White chocolate is made pretty much the same way as milk chocolate. It uses cocoa butter instead of cocoa solids though, so technically its not really chocolate at all. But, it acts just like milk chocolate and you can use it the same way as you would use milk chocolate.

[Momma C]

Great recipe. I happened to have a mixture of dried cranberries and chopped pecans leftover from another cooking experiment, so I added them to the dough instead of the almonds. I did not add the almond extract either, which I thought would detract from the other flavors. Drizzled a variety of chocoates on top. They were delicious and especially good with coffee this morning.
Thanks, Suz.

[Sue]

Mmmm...the cranberries sound great! Thanks for sharing.  Ill add in the different variations that I make for the holidays when it comes time!