Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Scrumpdillyicious Chocolate Chip Biscotti...

...or the continued effort to have our dessert and eat it too!



I have to confess that with most baked goodies I can maintain a certain amount of restraint. I bake lots of cupcakes and can take them or leave them.  This however is not the case with cookies. Fresh homemade cookies are like a siren's call to me, especially during the winter. The cold weather makes me want a piping hot cup of coffee and there's really nothing better with coffee than a cookie. This is really true if you're a dunker, like me. Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite coffee dunking cookie. I really have no will power when it come to freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I'll polish off three or four with a cup of coffee with no problem.
Anyway this winter has been the coldest one we've had since the ice age or something, and I been drinking potfuls of coffee. All this coffee drinking has had me craving chocolate chip cookies but haven't made any because I know I have zero cookie willpower. So I opted to make biscotti instead. This biscotti is lower in fat and calories than my chocolate chip cookie recipe. Not only does it taste great but the crunchiness biscotti makes it better than cookies for dunking into coffee.


As I was making these I realized that although I've eating lots of biscotti, I'd never actually made biscotti before. Well, I foresee lots of biscotti baking in my future!


Chocolate Chip Biscotti  (printable recipe)

Makes about 5 doz biscotti
2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 cup sugar 
1 tsp baking powder 
1/4 tsp. salt
Pinch ground cinnamon 
4 Tbls. cold  butter 
3 large eggs, lightly beaten 
1 cup semisweet-chocolate mini chips, or regular 
1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped 
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. With pastry blender, 2 knives used scissor-fashion, or quickly with your hands, cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. 
Spoon 1 tablespoon beaten eggs into cup; reserve. Add chocolate chips, walnuts, vanilla, and remaining beaten eggs to flour mixture; stir until evenly moistened. With hand, knead mixture a few times in bowl until dough forms. 
On floured surface, with floured hands, divide dough into quarters. Shape each quarter into a 9" by 2" log. Place logs crosswise, 4 inches apart, on 2 large cookie sheets. With pastry brush, brush tops and sides of logs with reserved egg. Bake logs 25 minutes. Cool logs on cookie sheet on wire rack 10 minutes. 


Place 1 log on cutting board. With serrated knife, cut warm log crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick diagonal slices.

You will be tempted to just eat it right now as you slice it!

 

do what I did and eat the little end piece...no one will ever know!

Place slices upright on cookie sheets. Repeat with remaining logs. Bake slices 15 minutes to allow biscotti to dry out. Cool completely on sheets on wire racks. Biscotti will harden as they cool. Store biscotti in tightly covered container.
 


Now brew a pot of coffee! 

22 comments:

Eliana said...

This dunker looks fantastic. Pass the coffee and tea...please :)

Bob said...

Nice, I have to try those. I've never made biscotti myself, but I really want to try it.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Look at all that chocolate which is the best for dunking.

Lucy said...

I can never resist a cookie - when I bake them they are gone very quickly! Your biscotti look delicious, and of course totally irresistible.

Cynthia said...

Scrumpdillyicious - that word just warms the heart and bring a smile to the face.

grace said...

i have restraint, unless the baked good in question contains cinnamon. unfortunately for my rump, most baked goods (including these!!) do indeed contain that blessed spice. oh well. :)

Barbara said...

Must confess, I've never made biscotti! I've watched Giada make it tons of times, so it doesn't look hard and the chocolate chip biscotti would be delish!

El said...

What a fabulous idea to add chocolate chips to your biscotti. It looks absolutely incredible!

Anonymous said...

i absolutely love to make and eat biscotti
but never thought of making a chocolate chip one!
these look fantastic :)
coffee with these is a must!

Zoe said...

Yum I love biscotti..and anything with chocolate for that matter!

Melanie said...

I am a dunker for sure. I love anything chocolate too. Perfect!

kellypea said...

I haven't made biscotti in years and this is really tempting me. I don't have the cold weather excuse, either, so after indulging myself, off to work they'd go. I could go for a few of these right now!

Caroline@DivineDesserts said...

Thanks for this awesome website! I love that you make all your recipies printable! How do you do that on your blog? Everything looks delicious!

Kelly said...

I've made quite a few different biscotti recipes and this is the absolute best! Already planning another batch with different flavors! Just found your site and love it!

ASHLEA said...

These look so delicious and perfect for an afternoon snack with a cup of coffee on a cold day... yum!

savvygreenmom said...

Oooh - yummy!! I have never made biscotti but these just look incredible! I would like to try them using Kamut Khorasan Wheat though :) mmmm - thanks for the recipe - on to dunking LOL

Prior said...

YUM! Now, I have to go make some coffee and dream of your biscotti! Lezlee

Kathleen said...

These look delicious. Perfect with my morning coffee!

Michael said...

Biscotti is one of my favorite snacks ever! Thank you for sharing this great recipe to us. I tried making biscotti before, but I always end up with the wrong recipe. Then when I came across your recipe, and tried it, it was perfect! It was really delicious especially when paired with a hot cup of espresso coffee Great post!

Anonymous said...

This is an awesome recipe! I tried it and the whole family loved them!!! It makes about 10 large biscotti.

Unknown said...

I love your blog. I am a teacher and just recently started a blog on things I do in my classroom to help out other teachers. I was looking for a cookie recipe and usually go to Allrecipe.com but came across your site and am so glad I did. I like the way you wrote up the recipe with the pictures as you go. I will try these tonight and share them with my staff tomorrow. Very very cute.

Half Baked said...

Hi Christine! Welcome to my blog. Thank-you for the sweet comment. I hope you like the biscotti as much as I did!