Happy Friday, friends!! It’s been a loooong week, but what better way to end it than sharing these little bars of happiness??
For our What’s Baking challenge this month, hosted by Colleen of The Redhead Baker, we are all making biscotti!!! Do you know just how many different kinds of biscotti there are? Like, eighty bagillion. Seriously. It’s cray.
I actually made three different varieties to share with my co-workers this week, but this was the overall favorite. I’m not typically a biscotti fan (gasp!) because I don’t particularly care for crunchy cookie-type desserts. I’m more of a soft ‘n’ chewy cookie kinda gal.
BUT. These particular biscotti are not excessively hard and crunchy. They’re crispy, but easy to bite into so you don’t feel like you’ll break your jaw trying. Oh. And they’re chocolate. Double chocolate. Dark chocolate, dipped in milk chocolate. Sprinkled with sea salt. Um. Yes, please.
I’d actually never made biscotti before so I had no idea what I was getting myself into making one batch, let alone three!! But, these are actually very easy to make. The dough comes together quickly and the bulk of the time is in the baking, cooling, and baking again. Make sure you carve out about an hour of time that you’ll be home and able to deal with these, but the active time is less than 10 minutes.
Biscotti make great gifts, they ship well, and store well for a week or so. But…unless you are making the ahead of time for something, they won’t be around that long!!
Double Chocolate Biscotti with Sea Salt
As seen on Blogging Over Thyme
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour (I used white whole wheat flour, you can also use all-purpose)
- 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder, sifted (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
- 2 Tbsp instant espresso powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature and slightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- sugar, for sprinkling
- 12 oz milk or semi-sweet chocolate or bark, melted
- Sea salt, for sprinkling
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (with rack in center) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a larget bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together for 2-3 minutes, or until the butter is pale in color. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue to beat for another minute or two–scraping down the bowl with a spatula to incorporate the ingredients.
- Reduce speed to low and add the dry ingredients, in batches, until well mixed and a smooth dough has formed.
- Divide dough in half, and roll each half into a 12″ log.-Place both rolls on the prepared baking sheet, with an inch or two in between for spreading, and use your hands to flatten and shape each into a 3″-4″ wide, 3/4″-1″ thick rectangle (still 12″ long)
- Sprinkle the tops with a little sugar and bake for 25 minutes, or until the logs are firm to the touch. Remove from oven (but leave it on) and allow to cool on a baking sheet for 20 minutes.
- Remove to a cutting board and use a serrated knife to cut each log into 3/4″ pieces (across the short side, so you’ll have 3″-4″ x 3/4″ pieces.)
- Place the pieces, flat back onto the baking sheet, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and cool completely before dipping into chocolate.
- In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate for 30 seconds, and then 15 seconds a at a time until mostly melted. Stir with a spoon until completely melted. Place chocolate in a shallow wide dish (I also melted mine in this dish to save dirtying and extra dish,etc. Mine was microwave safe – I recommend doing this if possible.)
- Dip one flat side of the biscotti into the chocolate, coating about half way, and then lay on wax paper or your cooled parchment baking sheet, chocolate side up. Repeat with remaining biscotti.
- Once the melted chocolate has cooled a bit, but is not hardened yet, sprinkle with sea salt.
- Allow chocolate to cool and harden and then store in an airtight container for up to a week.
I love everything chocolate and sweet. My hubby says I'm a well done sweet-tooth, but I don't agree. He's exaggerating for sure. I like writing about chocolate at http://essay-helper.co.uk/ and listening to the tutorials on chocolate challenges, but I don't consider myself to be such an avid chocolate eater.