Chocolate Biscotti

I had never heard of Biscotti until a few years ago.  I saw beautiful, tall containers of it in stores right around Christmas time.  I hunted around looking at recipes and ended up combining a few to get the result I wanted.  I looked on Wikipedia for some history on Biscotti.  I found that in North America, Biscotti are twice-baked cookies.  Wikipedia gives quite a bit of information do you know that biscotti is the plural form?  If you're referring to only ONE cookie, you have a biscotto.  Who knew?!?... if you'd like you can check that out here.

Biscotti is very dry and crisp and is often served with a beverage to dip it in.  We dip ours in Hot Chocolate and LOVE the chocolate variety. You can make a vanilla biscotti by omiting the cocoa.

Chocolate Biscotti

1 C. sugar

1/4 C. butter

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 C. flour

1/4 C. baking cocoa

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 C. sliced almonds if desired

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream sugar and butter in mixer until fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Mix dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture, mixing until the dough starts to hold together.  If the dough is so crumbly it won't stick together well when you try to press it into a ball, add another egg or a couple of tablespoons of water.  The dough should be very stiff, but still able to form into a log.

Take out half of the dough and form into a long log about 10 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide.  Do the same with the second half of the dough.   Both logs will fit side by side lengthwise on the cookie sheet.  Bake for 25 minutes and then cool about 20 minutes.  Slice each log diagonally in about 3/4 inch slices.  The sharper the slant you make the longer your cookies will be.  Place the cookie slices cut side up on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 300 for 15 minutes.  When you take them out, if they're still very moist, turn each piece over and bake again for 5 minutes.  Let cool and drizzle with melted chocolate.  Store in a dry place.

Joy's Notes:  The logs you form should look a bit like a small, skinny, french bread loaf.  For the drizzled chocolate, melt chocolate chips (white or chocolate) on low heat in the microwave stirring every 30 seconds until melted.  For about 1 C. of chocolate chips, add 1 tsp. shortening and stir in well... drizzle from a spoon over your cooled biscotti. (or if you have a plastic squeeze bottle - such as the cheap ones for ketchup you can buy at the dollar store - spoon your melted chocolate into that and it's easier to control the drizzle)  You can also dip half of the cookie in melted chocolate and then sprinkle with almonds, crushed candy cane, red & green sprinkles... use your imagination!