I have been wanting to do some baking but in the summer, I don’t really crave a lot of heavy cake-based kind of desserts. Eating fresh fruits beats any kind of fancy dessert in the summer. My favourite summer dessert is probably Eton Mess.
Still, I fancy getting the oven working to make me something lovely that does not need to be eaten in a couple of days. This biscotti should last a week if you store it well.
I have adapted this from the Hamlyn Cookery Book which is a fantastic book for beginning cooks (like myself).
You will need:
- 150 g of dark chocolate, chopped (I only have chocolate chips in my cupboard so I used those)
- 25 g of unsalted butter (Also run out so I used a slightly salted one)
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 2 free-range eggs
- 50 g light muscovado sugar (Didn’t have any so I used light brown caster sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100 g almond nuts, chopped or sliced (original recipe called for pecan nuts)
- icing sugar, for dusting
Tools
- baking sheet, greased or lined with baking paper
- Pre-heated oven at 190˚C
- mixing bowls
What to do
- Melt 200g of the chopped dark chocolate with the butter.
- Sift self-raising flour to a mixing bowl and then add eggs, sugar, nuts, vanilla extract, and the melted chocolate and butter mixture.
- Add the rest of the chopped chocolate until you have a dough.
- Dust the work surface with flour, transfer the dough, and cut it in half.
- Form two logs of about 10 inches long (really depends on how big the baking sheet is!), flatten to about 2 cm thick (a little less than an inch). Transfer to the baking tray and then bake for 18-20 mins.
- Remove from the oven and then reduce the heat of the oven to 160˚C.
- Leave the biscotti to cool for 20 mins before cutting it with a bread knife (serrated) into 2 cm thick slices. In my first try, it keeps crumbling so I lost a few biscotti 😦 So I started cutting them a bit thicker.
- Place the cut biscotti back into the baking tray with a little space in between them and then cook for another 15 mins.
- Transfer to a wire rack and then dust with icing sugar.
- Best served with coffee.
PS. I still love my Nespresso machine. It’s one of the best things I bought for our kitchen.
PPS. I am really liking the new flickr look, I find that inserting images is easier and does not involve going back and forth pages for me.
PPPS. I re-discovered smitten kitchen and Deb shares a chocolate hazelnut biscotti which I’ll try next time.