Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Well here it is - the first full post - recipe and all - from pastry school. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about sharing some bread recipes, but we've moved on to cookies and well...how could I resist. These are chocolate almond biscotti, and while I never thought I was a big biscotti fan, these are exceptionally tasty.

Biscotti are often known as a 'healthy' 'adult' cookies, partly because of their dry texture, which comes from having no added fats in the dough. Of course, when you add chocolate chips and slivered almonds, the health aspect kind of goes out the window.

 

 Of course, what really makes cookies biscotti is the twice baking method, The dough is shaped in to a loaf, baked, then removed from the oven, sliced in to pieces and laid flat to bake again, to be completely dried out for the traditional biscotti texture. 

 

In school we measure absolutely everything, using grams, so I gave you those measurements here, as well as some approximates for those of you without any scales. For absolute precision though, weighing is the way to go.


Tip of the Day: Use a large serrated knife to slice through the loaf for the second baking, and use a gentle sawing motion to avoid splintering and crumbling the cookies.

Recipe: 

156g ( 1 1/4 cups) flour
4g (1 teaspoon) baking soda
25g (a scant 1/4 cup) cocoa powder
130g egg (2-3 large eggs)
120g (1/2 cup) sugar
4g (1 teaspoon) vanilla
pinch of salt
200g (7 ounces) slivered almonds
107g (about 4 ounces) mini chocolate chips

Spread the almonds out on a baking sheet and roast at 350F (175C) for about 8 minutes. Let cool.
Mix the flour, baking soda and cocoa powder together in a bowl, set aside.
Whip the eggs and the sugar together for about 8 minutes, until tripled in volume. Add the vanilla and salt and mix.
Fold in the dry ingredients to the egg mix until no streaks of flour remain. Fold in the almonds and chocolate chips.
Shape the dough into a long flat loaf on a piece of parchment paper - about a foot long.
Bake on 350F/175C for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, and lower to 275F/135C.
Slice the loaf in to approximately 1/2 inch thick cookies, then lay flat on the parchment paper and bake an additional 30 minutes until completely dry.