You can make your own biscotti at home, instead of buying it at the coffee shop or bakery. It's not that difficult once you understand the double baking routine.
Biscotti is a wonderful alternative to regular cookies to serve with a cup of coffee or tea. These traditional Italian biscuits are double baked (baked, taken out of the oven, sliced and baked again) giving them a unique crisp texture that stands up well to dipping into your coffee.
You can pay a small fortune for biscotti if you buy it at your local coffeehouse with your usual coffee. It's not that hard to bake biscotti yourself, and then you can enjoy it every day if you like.
Triple Chocolate Biscotti
Chocolate is the perfect flavour to go with a rich cup of spiced coffee or a fresh espresso. These are a chocolate-lovers dream.
- 5 cups flour
- 1 ½ cups cocoa powder
- 2 tbs baking powder
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 6 eggs
- 2 ½ cups chocolate chips
- 12 oz dark chocolate, chopped
You should preheat your oven to 400F before you begin. Use a hand mixer to cream together the sugar and butter until blended fairly smoothly. Beat in the eggs (one at a time). Stir together the cocoa powder, baking powder and flour. Then add to the beaten wet ingredients. Stir in all the chocolate ships.
Shape the dough into oblong loaves, and bake for about 25 minutes. Take the pan from the oven, and let your biscotti cool completely. Then slice each loaf into 1" thick pieces (a serrated knife works best). Place the slices onto the baking sheet, one cut side up. Reduce heat in the oven to 350F and continue baking. Bake again for another 10 minutes
Remove from the oven and let cool again. Use a double-boiler or the microwave to melt the remaining dark chocolate. Drip liquid chocolate over the cool biscotti, and let sit until hardened. Serve and enjoy.
Ginger Biscotti
If chocolate is not your preferred taste, try these spicy ginger biscotti instead. Very zesty.
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp powdered ginger
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup candied ginger, chopped
Preheat oven to 350. Stir together the first 5 dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk eggs until beaten through and add to the dry ingredient bowl. Then stir in the chopped candied ginger and continue mixing until you have a stiff dough.
Divide up the dough into 4 logs. Place logs onto cookie sheet (you will likely need 2). Make sure you allow for a few inches of spreading, so don't place the logs too close together. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool. Reduce the heat down to 300F.
Slice the logs into ½ inch slices and lay them back down on the cookie sheets. Bake again for another 10 – 15 minutes, until they start to look toasty. Remove and let cool before serving.
Note, you can store home-made biscotti in an airtight container at room temperature for a week or two.
