Chocolate, Almond and Craisin Biscotti
Servings: 20 to 24 biscotti
Ingredients
- 200 g spelt flour or plain flour (+ extra for dusting)
- 60 g Dutched cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes or ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 230 g golden caster sugar
- 3 tsp coffee granules
- 2 x 60g eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 50 g blanched almonds toasted and lightly chopped
- 50 g dried craisins
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees, fan forced
- Line a baking tray with baking paper
- Place flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, sugar and coffee into TM bowl and mix 3 seconds / speed 6
- Add whole eggs, egg yolk and vanilla and knead 1 minute
- Stir mix around and knead for a further 1 minute
- Add almonds and craisins and knead for 1 minute (so there is a total of 3 minutes kneading which will bring the mix together)
- Turn your TM bowl upside down onto your bread mat (or baking paper) and allow dough to drop out
- Shape the dough into a log roughly 30 cm x 10 cm (if the mix is too sticky to handle properly, then dip your fingers into water)
- Lightly dust the log with flour ensuring that all the surfaces are coated
- Place on lined baking tray and bake 25 minutes, turn tray around and bake a further 5 minutes
- Lift the baking paper, with the log on it, from the baking tray and place onto a cooling rack to cool for 10 minutes (no longer as it may cool too much for cutting ... set a timer so you don't forget)
- Reduce oven to 150 degrees, fan forced
- Lift the baking paper, with the log on it, onto a large cutting board and slip the log off the paper
- Use a sharp serrated knife to cut across the log on an angle into 1cm thick slices
- Carefully lift the slices onto a lined baking tray … if any ends tear off, then push them back into place as you put the slice on the tray
- Bake for 10 minutes, turn over carefully and continue for a further 10 minutes until firm
- Sit on baking tray for 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack
Notes
Biscotti are Italian almond biscuits that originated in the city of Prato. They are twice-baked, oblong-shaped, dry, crunchy, and traditionally dipped in a drink, for some it would be coffee or tea, or others it would be Vin Santo. And they are great to serve alongside creamy or fruity desserts for that bit of extra crunch.
Whilst talking about crunch let me mention that biscotti should be "crunchy", but not so much so that you are in danger of losing a front tooth (or two) in your first bite ... so in this recipe they are baked twice until firm, and once cool they should be hard on the outside but have a very slight "give" in the centre making them easier to get your front teeth through them.
Biscotti can be stored in an air-tight container for long periods of time ... the longest I have had them (before all were eaten) is a month, but I believe that they will keep much longer and can easily be refreshed in the oven if necessary.
When deciding the best time to cut the biscotti log into slices I found there is definitely a "sweet spot" ... and for me that is 10 minutes ... if I left it too long the log was a little brittle making it more difficult to cut into even slices, and if I did it sooner the craisins and almonds would not have set enough in the mix and tended to tear through the log again giving me uneven slices ... and that is not a good thing! So when you take the log from the oven set your timer for 10 minutes so that you don't forget.
It is also really important that:
(1) you lightly chop your almonds otherwise they will be full size and could cause some "dragging" through the log when cutting; and
(2) that you use a good sharp knife to cut the log into slices (I use a sharp bread knife ... perfect for the job). When cutting I put my forefinger and thumb of my left hand on either end of the slice as I cut with my right hand, and this helped to keep the ends of each slice together ... if a small piece did come away I would simply push it back into position as I lay it on the baking sheet, and once baked a second time it would meld into the slice and be perfect.
The biscotti are great just as they are, but if you want to jazz them up a little (like at Christmas) then dip one end in either white or dark chocolate for a lovely finish. See main post for link to tempering chocolate if you decide to do this. You will need 300g of chocolate.