Almond Biscotti - Choco dipped or otherwise!

Biscotti first caught my attention when they featured as a technical challenge on The Great British Bake off. Their delicate double baking and the subtle aromatic tastefulness was enough to probe me to take the challenge. 

After browsing many websites and debates on what is authentic and what is not, I decided to let go of chasing the authentic recipe and settle with a guaranteed-success formula for my first batch. Authentic Almond biscotti are made without butter and the almonds are blanched. My recipe has some butter and I used toasted coarsely chopped almonds. The result was anyway superb :)

Ingredients:

31/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 cups plus

2 tablespoons self raising flour 

Pinch salt

2 large eggs

100 gm Almond flakes

75 gm chopped almonds 

2 teaspoons of Almond extract

100 gm dark chocolate

Directions:

Bisotti

·  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Prepare the baking tray by rubbing butter and dusting with flour or just spread a baking paper

·  Melt the butter, add sugar and whisk with a hand whisk for about 5 mins until the mixture is light

·  Add a pinch of salt to flour and add into the butter mixture alternating with eggs

·  Once all dry mixture is used up, add the nuts, flavour and flakes and mix until combined.

·  Transfer the dough to a lightly floured table top and shape it into a 12-inch-long log. (you can make a broad long log or 2 logs of lesser width depending on your choice of biscotti length)

Carefully transfer the log to the prepared baking tray and bake for 20 minutes. Baking time may vary by a couple of minutes depending on oven, baking tray and log height. We are looking for a golden, set log - firm but not hard to touch

·  Leaving the oven on take the log out and cut the log on the diagonal into 1/2 -inch-thick slices. Place the biscotti cut side up on the baking tray and bake for an additional 6-7 minutes each side. Cool  on a wire rack. These are now ready to be devoured, however, if you want to impress your guests just go for an additional dash of chocolate on top

Chocolate dip

·  Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring between 20-30 second intervals until almost all of the chocolate has melted. Stir until smooth and allow to cool for a few minutes before dipping the biscotti.

·  Using a spoon spread chocolate on top of each biscotti or dip the biscotti in melted chocolate if desired. I tried both as seen from the pics :)

While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle crushed almond flakes or finely chopped pistachio on the chocolate and allow the chocolate to set for a couple of hours

·  They say biscotti last upto 2 weeks in an airtight container. Both of my batches vanished within a matter of minutes!