Chocolate Biscotti

This post is all about the making of chocolate biscotti.  Biscotti are a type of Italian cookie that is baked twice.  They are often eaten with coffee.

This particular recipe once again comes from the Culinary Institute of America’s Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft.  Normally the recipe’s in this book need to be halved or quartered to make in a home kitchen.  However, this particular recipe needs no adjustments.

Here is the mise en place for the biscotti.  I’ve chosen to omit the almond extract since I’m not a fan of almonds.

Here are the “wet” ingredients.  They include the instant espresso powder and sugar.

The dry ingredients go into a separate bowl.

And then they get mixed until uniform.  Technically they should be sifted together, but here I’ve just mixed it together with a fork.

The chocolate gets chopped into small chunks.  Once again, I’ve chosen Callebaut dark chocolate.

The wet ingredients, then, get mixed together with the wire whip attachment until they get a little frothy and lighten up in color considerably.

The dry ingredients get mixed in a third at a time until just incorporated.  Then the chocolate chunks should be folded in.  The mixture won’t seem very thick by sight, but when mixing by hand and when removing from the bowl it will seem very thick and heavy.

The mixture should be arranged on a nonstick surface for baking.  I’ve used a silpat, but some parchment would do nicely.  You should try to make your dough longer and thinner than I have made it here.  It should be as wide as you want your final biscotti to be long.

After baking in the oven for an hour, the biscotti are ready to come out.  Let it cool for a few minutes, and then cut it into strips about half and inch wide.

Then arrange them on their side back on the cookie sheet.  You will probably need at least two cookie sheets for this part.  They should bake again for about 12 minutes then get flipped over and bake again.

Once they are done, they should be very dry.  When they have cooled they can be enjoyed as is or would go nicely with cup of strong coffee.