Chocolate Chip and Almond Biscotti
The holiday hit parade continues and today it’s a family classic that I cannot believe I have not yet shared with you—these wonderfully satisfying Chocolate Chip and Almond Biscotti. They deliver in every way you want them to!!
These biscotti used to be something I made kind of regularly and then, I don’t know why, something newer and shinier caught my eye and I just sort of…stopped. But recently I had them at my sister’s house and I was reminded of how much we all love them and I want you to be able to love them too!
Would that these were my own creation, but no, they are the brainchild of the late and great Maida Heatter who has always been such a baking inspiration to us all. She’s got some very particular techniques which I’ve always followed, but I have altered the recipe a bit over the years. I’ve swapped out the semisweet morsels for shards of bittersweet chocolate, cut the whiskey and used water instead and now use raw slivered almonds instead of whole blanched ones since they are so darn hard to find!
Once you mix up the dough and shape it into 4 logs, you place them on foil-lined rimmed baking sheets that have been turned upside down.
Then once those logs finish their first bake, you let them rest for a bit, carefully slice into wedges and return to the oven where they finish drying out, even spending a cooling stint in there too.
The cookies are truly perfection—crunchy without being impossible to bite into and loaded with chunks of chocolate and toasted almonds. I think that once you try them, they’ll quickly become a must-have holiday favorite.
They’d be a terrific addition to any cookie platter or to gift on their own in a cute tin or to keep for yourself and dunk into a steaming cup of coffee or tea on a chilly day.
Whatever you decide, you can’t go wrong!!
Chocolate Chip and Almond Biscotti
Makes at least 3 dozen
You will need a food processor for these.
Prep Time: 20 minutes; Bake Time: 1 bake for about 25 minutes, then a 20 minute rest and then the second bake for about 25 minutes
Ingredients
6 ounces blanched raw slivered almonds
2 cups sifted unbleached, all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sugar
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped roughly
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons water
The Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 350º F and place the nuts on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast for about 10-12 minutes, checking halfway through and giving the pan a little shake, until the nuts are lightly colored and smell a little roasted. Set aside to cool. Turn the oven up to 375ºF and divide the racks into thirds. Turn two large rimmed cookie sheets upside down and line with a piece of aluminum foil, shiny side up. Set aside.
2. Into a large bowl, sift together the sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the sugar and stir to mix.
3. Measure about ½ cup of the dry ingredients and a ½ cup of the toasted almonds into a food processor and process for about 30 seconds or so until the nuts are fine and powdery.
4. Add the processed mixture to the bowl along with the rest of the almonds and the chopped chocolate. Stir to mix.
5. In a separate small bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla and water and add to the dry ingredients. Use a large rubber spatula until everything is incorporated. Be patient. It will seem like there is not enough liquid and if you have absolutely have to add a bit more water, like a teaspoonful to help it all come together.
6. Place a piece of parchment or wax paper on the counter and turn the dough out onto it. Wet your hands and only very slightly shake them off. Then use them to form the dough into a round mound. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the dough into 4 even pieces.
7. Wet your hands again and form each piece of dough into 9-inch long, 2-2 ½-inch wide strip, trying to keep the ends rounded, rather than pointy. Place 2 strips crosswise on each of the prepared baking sheets so that they have room to spread.
8. Bake both sheets at the same time for 20- 25 minutes, reversing the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the process (at my old house I did these for the full 25 minutes, but here my oven runs hot so I only do for 20 minutes or they tend to get a little too dark on the bottom).
9. Transfer the foil with the logs off of the baking sheets onto wire racks and let cool for 20 minutes. Turn the oven down to 275ºF. Turn the baking sheets right side up.
10. Place one log at a time on a cutting board and use a serrated knife to carefully cut ½ slices at an angle. Place the slices on the unlined sheets, cut side down and place each sheet into the oven, baking for another 25-30 minutes, turning the slices upside down and reversing the sheets front to back and top to bottom like before at the half way mark.
11. Leaving the trays in the oven, open the oven door, turn off the oven and let the biscotti cool completely in the oven. Store them in an airtight container. These are reputed to last 2 weeks but I’ve never made it that far!
Enjoy!
Note: Recipe adapted from Maida Heatter’s Brand-New Book of Great Cookies. I used blanched slivered almonds instead of the whole blanched almonds because it’s hard to find then and they are generally very pricey, but if you have those instead, go for it because I like the biscotti even better with those. Also I subbed in cut up bittersweet chocolate for the semisweet morsels and used water instead of the whiskey or brandy. Plus, I kind of simplify some of the baking techniques—she is a wonderful baker but very persnickety when it comes to the process.
