Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Sweet, Crusty and Messy...Ah, Biscotti

Biscotti is a great gift to give people for many occasions, particularly the holidays. I recently made two kinds of biscotti, which came out marvelous...until I tried to get fancy and dip them in chocolate. Still tasted great, but it looked...notsomuch. And surprisingly, biscotti is very easy to make. Go ahead, give it a try.


CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BISCOTTI

Mmmmm...Like Nutella in crusty bread form...


What You'll Need

4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa, preferably Dutch-processed

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 teaspoon baking soda


1/4 teaspoon salt


3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure v
anilla extract

1 cup hazelnuts (toasted and coarsely chopped)



What You'll Do

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Toast hazelnuts: spread on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned and the skins begin to flake. Now put your nuts in a towel. Roll them up and let ‘em steam for 5 minutes and then rub it quickly. This should get them nekked (take the skins off). Let them cool down and then chop.

Bring oven temp down to 300 degrees. Put
a Silpat or parchment/wax paper on a baking sheet.

In a food processor, mix the chopped chocolate and brown sugar until the chocolate is very fine.

Whisk the flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

I
n your mixer, blend the eggs and vanilla extract for about 30 seconds. On low speed, mix in the chocolate/sugar mixture and flour mixture until a stiff dough forms. Add the hazelnuts about halfway through mixing.

On a floured surface divide the dough in half. Form each half into one-foot logs (that’s 12 inches folks). I usually just put it into a ball and then roll it into shape. Will basically look like a huge poop (appetizing, isn’t it?).

Move the logs to the baking sheet, making sure there’s enough space around them (about 2-3 inches minimum).

Bake about 35-45 minutes (until almost firm to touch, the logs spread and crack a little on top). When done, put logs on a wire rack and let them cool down for 10 minutes.

On a cutting board and with a serrated knife, cut the logs into diagonal slices 3/4 inch thick. Put them on baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, turn over and bake on other side for 15 minutes. Should be
crisp and dry. When done, put them on wire rack again to cool.


Voila!


CRANBERRY-PISTACHIO BISCOTTI


This is great around the holidays because of the colors, but I like to make it an
ytime. Because it is dee-li-shus.

What You'll Need:

2/3 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups flour


1/2 cup shelled, unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped


1/2 cup dried cranberries


What You'll Do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Get baking pam ready with Silpat or wax/parchment paper.

In an electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs on high until thick, pale, and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Then beat in the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg/sugar/vanilla and beat until mixed. Fold in the chopped pistachios and cranberries.


Move dough to baking sheet and form into a log about 1-foot long and 3 to 4 inches wide. The dough’s going to be sticky so you probably want to wet your hands as you’re doing this. Bake for 25 minutes or so or until firm and crackled.

Cool for 10 minutes, then slice on the diagonal. Bake slices for 10 minutes, flip over and bake for another 10 minutes until golden brown. Let cool again (on a wire rack).




And where's the messy part, you may ask? That's in the glaze. I haven't figured out how to melt white chocolate and make it look...well, white and not like glaze. The dark chocolate part is easy. Melt it and add heavy cream. Dip Biscotti, drizzle over biscotti, whatever you want. Go nuts!


1 comment:

  1. white chocolate is tricky. i made very similar biscotti about 2 months ago that i have yet to post but what i did was dip in chocolate and roll in chopped white chocolate. it looks grt and stays white chocolatey- : )

    ReplyDelete

Speak up, phatkids!