Hello my fellow foodies and welcome to another recipe.
This month I would like to share with you a recipe for Biscotti. These twice-baked, crispy teatime treats originate from Italy and traditionally are made with Almonds. Originally these were twice (or even thrice) baked to dry them out to ensure they kept for longer, which make them the perfect treat to keep on stand by for unexpected guests or to give away as gifts.
Preheat the oven to 180° and line a large baking sheet with non stick baking paper.
Biscotti
225g Plain flour
1tsp Baking powder
175g Caster sugar
Zest of 1 orange finely grated
2 eggs from happy and healthy free roaming hens
150g whole hazelnuts lightly toasted
75g dark chocolate, cut into small chunks. 70% cocoa solids works best
Let’s begin by mixing the flour, baking powder, sugar and orange zest into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then add them to the dry ingredients and mix, with your hand until the mixture comes together and knead to form a smooth dough.
Next add the hazelnuts and chocolate and knead again.Now, lightly flour your surface and turn the dough out on to it. Divide the mixture in half and form each half into a “sausage” shape. Place each half onto your paper-lined baking sheet but take care to leave plenty of space between your two “sausages” as these beauties will spread. Pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes, you are aiming to achieve a light, even, golden brown colour. Next remove from the oven and cool on wire racks for 10 minutes, while this is happening turn the oven down to 140°.
Once completely cool we are going to cut the dough rolls diagonally into approximately 1cm thick slices. ( cutting the dough when it is still warm will result in “squashing” the shape of the final slices.) I managed 20 slices from each giving me 40 lovely slices and 4 knobbly ended which were snaffled up by “kitchen loiterers!” Return each slice flat onto the baking sheet and pop the tray back into the now cooler oven for another 15 minutes. This will dry the biscotti further and lightly colour it too. Remove from the oven and cool completely onto a wire cooling rack. And worry not dear reader, these beauties will take on their traditional hard exterior as they cool.
All that remains is for you to do now is to brew a strong coffee, invite round some friends and enjoy the biscotti over a good, long chat!
Until next time dear reader..
