Biscotti is meant to be dipped in coffee. Especially into milky lattes or coffee sweetened by cream. That's my opinion anyway, and since it's my blog I'm free to write what I want.I tried a piece of biscotti by itself and it just didn't do that much for me. It was crunchy which I don't like in cookies and there wasn't enough chocolate flavor to wow me either. But the next day I took the other half of that piece of biscotti and dipped into my morning coffee (which is always doused liberally with Italian Sweet Cream creamer) and it was fantastic.
The crunch of the cookie was softened by the liquid and the bittersweet of the coffee worked perfectly with the chocolate and almonds in the biscotti. I brought the biscotti to work and fully expected to bring at least half of it home again since I had also brought the pumpkin scones the same day, but I was surprised because my coworkers ate all of it. Guess more people like biscotti than I expected...
Ingredients:
6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
1/2 cup chopped bittwesweet chocolate
1/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp espresso powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup chopped almonds
Preheat oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silpats.
In a medium bowl beat the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla and baking powder until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at at time , the batter may look slightly curdled.
In a small food processor, process the chocolate, cocoa and espresso powder until it is finely ground. Mix it with the flour and then add that mixture to the egg/sugar mixture. Stir in the nuts.
Transfer the dought to the prepared baking sheet and shape it into a log about 12 inches long and about 2 1/2 inches wide and an inch thick.
Bake the dough for 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven let cool 5-25 minutes. Five minutes before cutting it, use a spray bottle filled with water and thoroughly but lightly spritz the log, making sure to cover the sides. This will make slicing easier.
Reduce the oven temp to 325, then cut the log into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces.
Set the biscotti on the baking sheet cut side down and bake for 25 minutes. remove from the oven and transfer them to a rack to cool.
2 comments:
I looooove biscotti. And I love to eat them dry...hard, crunchy and light on flavor! I haven't made them since last Christmas because of that whole baking 2x thing...but I bet I would have sneaked off with at least half of them if I worked with you! :)
i'm not a dunker, not of biscotti or cookies or donuts. i'm a sopper, though, of bread in gravies or sauces or oils or soups. so, i eat biscotti dry, and there have only been a very few that i've been really enthusiastic about eating that way.
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