A special biscotti recipe to help sweeten your holidays
I've tried and enjoyed many biscotti recipes over the years, but I always come back to this one, my favorite. It stays crisp forever, a good attribute during a busy holiday season, and is just so satisfying with the crunch of nuts and the big chocolate flavor, reminiscent of a brownie.. You never know what kind of crunch you'll get with a new biscotti recipe, and find this one is just right - crisp enough to hold its own when dipped in a hot drink but chewable enough to eat if you find yourself with time for a drink.
To get the texture just right, you will need a food processor. Pay attention to the order of the steps and be brave with this dough. It will never look wet, but when you work with it, focus on getting the ingredients mixed uniformly and moist. When you dump it on the sheet, you may worry it's too crumbly. This is when you roll up your sleeves and smoosh it together - smoosh with finesse and light hands of course - but smoosh you must or it will not will not slice correctly in the final stage.
Coffee drinkers will find this cookie a decadence and perfect mate for their morning. Package a few up with a sack of nice coffee and you've got an instant and thoughtful gift. The recipe originally came from Nick Malgieri, an old school Italian baker whose recipes taught me much back in the day when it still felt novel and generous to be able to print out a chef's recipe from a website, rather than get the cookbook.
Milk chocolate nut biscotti
Makes about 32 cookies Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups hazelnuts or walnuts
1/2 cup cocoa powder
8 ounces milk, chopped coarsely
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
1 Preheat your oven to 325F degrees.
2 Roughly chop the chocolate into jagged, uneven pieces and set aside.
3 Pulse the sugar, nuts, and cocoa in a food processor until pebbly.
4 Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Then, add to the processor and pulse a few times.
5 Add eggs and vanilla extract. Pulse.
6 Turn the dough out into a bowl or on a board and add in the chocolate, mixing and folding just a bit until its dispersed and the dough looks uniformly moistened.
7 On the baking sheets, divide your mixture evenly. With your hands, press it together and form it into a flat rectangle. Pay attention to the top and
edges as you go. Press gently until it is not crumbly and it looks solid. On each sheet, aim to create a rectangle that is about 12x4 inches and about 3/4 inches tall.
8 Bake for 30 minutes. At this point, the dough is still soft, so let it cool completely on the baking sheet.
9 Scoot the dough gently onto a cutting board and slice into even slices, about 3/4 inches thick, Place each biscotti, cut side up, on the baking sheet. Bake
for 20 minutes more.
10 When cool, package the biscotti in a box or bag and they'll keep for weeks.
Anne Willhoit is an educator, community volunteer, and enthusiastic baker who likes to create recipes that use from-scratch techniques and are inspired by local, seasonal ingredients. Find her on Instagram at @aawillhoit or drop her an inquiry at FromScratchKS@gmail.com.