Almond Biscotti dipped in Chocolate

Are you ready for a good cookie to eat in the new year?  I am, and I vote for the almond biscotti.  Dipped in dark chocolate.
Let’s pretend I’m a lawyer for a second and I will make my case.  The biscotti is “authentic”, which means it does not contain butter or oil to make it super crispy crunchy and hard. This means two things:  it must must be dipped in coffee or wine before it is eaten (otherwise teeth may be lost).  Eating a crunchy cookie dipped in coffee, wine, or even hot chocolate is exactly what you are supposed to be doing when it is snowing and in the single digits outside.

Next, the lack of butter and oil means it is almost a healthy cookie.  OK just kidding, not really a healthy cookie, but it’s not like the worst thing you could possibly put in your mouth.  That award, incidentally, goes to this.
To make biscotti, you form the stiff dough into a long rectangular log, like this:

You bake the dough once in its log shape, then cut it on the diagonal to form the individual biscotti.  You lay these on their sides on the baking sheet and put them back in the oven at a lower temperature for 10 minutes on each side so they’re light golden and crunchy.

Then, if you like chocolate, you can dip the bottom halves of the biscotti into melted dark chocolate.  I like this, because then when you dip the biscotti into your coffee the chocolate melts just a little bit and is so delicious when you bite into each warm coffee-dipped bite.

Chocolate dipped biscotti start to line up on my parchment drying grounds…

And then they have to hang out for almost an hour to harden back up. It’s pretty torturous.

When they’re done you pretty much have to brew some strong black coffee with cream to dip them in, even if it is late in the afternoon.  And then you stay up way past your bedtime because the stupid coffee won’t let you fall asleep.  But that’s OK because it is winter-time so you can climb in your bed under your new goose down comforter and read a good book while looking out the window at the darkness and sparkling snow.

OK I don’t really have my goose-down comforter yet but I plan on returning some Christmas loot to get one in the near future.  Everything else is true, though, I swear!

Tips for making biscotti:

• The biscotti dough will be really dry and stiff – this is normal.
• The recipe I followed calls for you to form the dough into a flattened rectangular log of about 12 inches.  Note that you can make the log longer and skinnier, or shorter and fatter based on your preference.   A longer log will create smaller biscotti (but more of them) and the fatter log will make longer biscotti (but fewer of them).  I think 12 inches is a nice middle ground…you want to make sure the biscotti are long enough to dip into your coffee!
• Use good chocolate – you can really taste it when it’s coating the outside of the cookie (vs in chip form inside the cookie)
• No need to use a double-boiler to melt the chocolate.  Just pour it into a shallow dish and microwave in 30 second increments, stirring well between each stint, until smooth and molten.

Traditional Almond Biscotti

• 1 cup whole almonds, toasted and chopped coarsely
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 bag high quality dark chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli.  Make sure you like the taste of the chocolate chips you use, because they feature very prominently in the final product)

Heat oven to 350.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Toast almonds in oven @ 350 for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown and delicious smelling.  Chop coarsely.
Beat sugar and eggs until they form thick ribbons when you life the beaters (about 5 minutes), then add almond extract.
Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then slowly add to egg mixture until combined.
Fold in chopped almonds with a spoon to avoid completely crunching them up with the mixer.
Dough will be quite stiff.  Remove it from the bowl with your hands and form it into a long rectangular flattened log (as pictured above), about 12 inches long.
Bake dough log in oven at 350 for 25 minutes.  Bottom will be golden brown, but the top won’t look golden.
Cut the log on the diagonal, in approximately 1 inch segments, to form the individual biscotti.  Lay biscotti on their sides, lower oven temp to 325, and bake for 10 additional minutes on each side.
Let cool, then dip bottoms of biscotti in melted dark chocolate.  Set carefully on parchment paper and let sit for 30 – 60 minutes or until chocolate has firmed up.  Done!

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