Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Finally, here is the recipe for the biscotti, sorry for taking so long to get it posted.

Wednesday night I found myself with a little extra spare time on my hands. (still not sure how that happened but it did.)

I decided to make some more biscotti but this time use a different recipe. (I had my detective cap on during the week searching for the right recipe.)

This biscotti is really hard, I mean it really needs to be dunked into something warm.

If not, I would say you could be minus a few of your pearly whites. ;->

Don’t let that deter you, this biscotti is killer! Not sweet, and melts in your mouth once you have dunked it. Mmm… what a treat.

The recipe I selected was from Joy of Baking.com.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti Recipe:

¾ cup blanched almonds, toasted and chopped coarsely *

2/3 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, chopped in ½ inch pieces. **

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.

2. Toast almonds for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool and then chop coarsely. Set aside.

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

4. In a bowl with your electric mixer (or hand mixer), beat the sugar and eggs on high speed until thick, pale and fluffy (about 5 minutes). (When you slowly lift the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) At this point beat in the vanilla extract.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

6. Add to the egg mixture and best until combined. F
7. Fold in the chopped almonds and chocolate.
8. Transfer the dough to your parchment lined baking sheet and form into a log, about 12 inches long and 3 ½ inches wide. You may have to dampen your hands to form the log as the dough is quite sticky.
9. Bake for 25 minutes, or until firm to the touch.
10. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes.
11. Transfer the log to a cutting board and using a serrated knife, cut log into slices ¾ inches thick on the diagonal.
12. Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes, turn slices over, and bake another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
13. Remove from oven and let cool.
14. Store in an airtight container.
15. Makes about 16 biscotti.

* I did not blanch the almonds, just simply used roasted ones and chopped them.

** I did not have a bar of semi-sweet so I substituted mini semi sweet chocolate chips.

I know the recipe called for 4oz but, um…. I figured 5oz could not hurt anyone.

Both of the substitutions worked out perfectly and I ended up with about 14 bars of biscotti.