Chocolate Biscotti

I love a good biscotti!  Remember how I was making a few cookie trays for that “coffee break” at school a couple weeks ago?  Well I thought a good way to add chocolate to the tray would be in the way of a biscotti.  I looked around at a few of my favorite recipe sites and found a good double chocolate walnut biscotti that fit the bill on Epicurious.com.  I’ve found good biscotti recipes there in the past.

Since I was trying a new recipe I was a little worried.  Especially because the dough was a little more crumbly than I was expecting.  Even though the dough was crumbly, I was able to form it into logs and it baked quite well.  So it was a testament to keeping the faith and following through.

These biscotti were a great chocolate flavor with a nice walnut crunch.  The next time I make them I might add a little instant coffee or espresso powder (I didn’t have any in my cupboard at the time).  Coffee always intensifies the chocolate flavor a little bit.cookie tray

Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

Make about 30 small biscotti, adapted from Epicurious.com

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3/4 stick (6 Tbs) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup walnuts, chopped
  • 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
  3. In a different bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
  4. Gradually add the flour mixture into the wet mixture.  This is when the dough might be kind of dry and crumbly. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.
  5. Form the dough into two logs on a parchment lined cookie sheet. The logs should be kind of flattened on top and about two inches wide. Bake for 35 minutes until logs are pretty solid.logs
  6. Allow the biscotti to cool for about five minutes, then slice on a diagonal about 3/4 of an inch thick. Lay the slices on the cookie sheet cut side up. Bake for 10 more minutes.  Allow to cool completely.

Cookie Tray

So I volunteered to make some cookie trays for a “coffee talk” at school. After some self inflicted hemming and hawing on my part, I put together a list of five different cookies to include on the trays. I thought since it’s for a coffee and tea break, I should include simple cookies that pair well with a hot beverage.  The event was late morning so it needed to be things that weren’t too sugary, but past the breakfast pastry stage.  This immediately brings me to shortbread or similarly dry cookies like biscotti.  I’ve already made the standard shortbread several times for things at school so I thought I would add some variation.

With those considerations in mind, I decided to make Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies, Ricotta Cookies, and Double Chocolate Walnut biscotti (to add some chocolate to the mix).  Then since it was near purim, I felt compelled to make Hamentashen.  And to roundout the tray I added some small brownie squares.

Voila!cookies!yum

Over the next couple weeks I’ll be posting the recipes for the Cream Cheese Walnut Cookies, Ricotta Cookies, and Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti.  Get Excited!