Chocolate Biscotti - Bake it Yourself - Penny Pinching in Tight Times

These are crisp and crunchy and perfect alone or coupled with a nice cup of Hot tea, coffee, or Hot Cocoa! After you get the dough mixed you will have to let it freeze for 2 hours or more. I often mix at night and bake in the morning. This will be baked twice. You will bake the first time for 1 hour in a long log, and then remove to slice into slices and return to bake for 40-45 additional minutes, so plan your time accordingly...as an added bonus it's a good way to help warm up the house on a cold day! So, let's get this waggin' train a rolling!

You will need to assemble:

8 Ounces of Macadamia nuts chopped into nice sized pieces(or Pecans, Walnuts, Almonds, Hazelnuts, etc. they just have to be already roasted. If you have raw nuts needing roasting you can toast in a 365 degree oven for 15 minutes until lightly toasted in color, and stir at least half way through. they will give off a nutty smell when done. I usually turn off the oven and crack the door and let them cool on the rack while I do the rest...

8 Ounces of Milk Chocolate...I use either some off a Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate bar, or Hershey's. I have successfully used Skor toffee bar, or Heath Milk chocolate bits as a substitute, or change of pace.

1 3/4 Cups of Sifted All purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 Cup of un-sweetened Cocoa powder
1 Cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (you can use different flavors if feeling daring. 1/2 vanilla, and half rum extract worked nicely)
Plastic cling wrap, or wax paper

You will need either a blender or a food processor-nothing fancy, bowl and measuring utensils, and cups.

Blend in a mixing bowl on the side all the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and sugar. Scoop out 1 cup of this mixture and dump into the bottom of your blender, or food processor. Break up the chocolate bar into small pieces and toss in the blender/processor too. Place the top/lid on and give it a a few quick pulses to blend together. You are looking for the chocolate to blend in nicely with the dry mixture. Dump this mix back into the first bowl of dry stuff, and stir in your nuts.

In a small separate bowl beat the 4 eggs to blend nicely and add the extract in as well.

With Rubber scraper, or spatula fold the egg mixture into the dry ingredients by running the scraper along the outside, and then under to the bottom and up the center to fold in the egg mixture. It will seem very dry, but that is the correct consistency. Give the bowl a 1/4 turn and fold again, and continue just until blended together thoroughly and then set aside.

Grab a roll of plastic wrap, or wax paper. You will need to pull off about 2 pieces that are 2 feet long.

Divide dough if half within your bowl. Spoon half of the dough onto the first strip of plastic or wax paper. The shape of a log is what we are going for here and we want it about 14-15 inches long on the plastic/wax.

After you do the first half repeat and do the same on the second piece of plastic/wax paper with the second half of the dough.

Now pull the longest sides of the plastic/wax paper together and fold down away from you until you have a nice tight-snug long bundle. Give the dough a little flatten across the top by gently pressing the dough with your fingers to even it out in the plastic/wax. We are aiming for the dough to be about 15 inches long, and 3/4 of an inch thick and about 2-1/2 to 3 inches wide in the end. When it looks even and about right roll the fold the ends over and fold under the dough, but don't over do it...you want the dough level while freezing, and not more than 3/4th of an inch high so you can easily cut it later after baking.

Repeat for the second half of dough. Place the two portions of wrapped dough on a cookie sheet, and freeze for at least a minimum of 2 hours, or overnight, or more. It has to be nice and firm or you will have a hard time cutting later.

Before you pull the dough out of the freezer: You will need 2 baking sheets lined with either parchment paper, or foil with the shiny side up. I personally use parchment at work, and I use Reynolds Release at home and it works great and is much cheaper than parchment.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. I place my 2 oven racks so that I have then evenly dividing my oven so there is the same amount between the racks as is between the 2 racks themselves.

I unwrap the first dough enough to be able to place one end in the right corner of the baking sheet and unwrap the rest while laying it on a diagonal across the baking sheet to the opposite corner. Your dough will spead to be about 7 inches wide so keep that in mind. The plastic does a great job at keeping your hands clean and tidy. Repeat with the second dough wrap onto the other cookie sheet.

You are going to Bake for 1 hour, and you will need to rotate the baking sheets halfway through. Put the top one on the bottom rake and vice-versa. I also rotate the individual sheets...so the front is now in the back to keep everything nice and even.

Now lower the oven to 275 degrees and remove the baking sheets onto a safe surface on. I have a huge wooden cutting board that I transfer the foil with the dough onto. I then get a clean kitchen towel and fold it a few times to use to hold the dough while I cut. I use a bread knife, or other long serrated knife to cut the biscotti into 3/4 " wide long strips. After you have cut a piece, place it gently onto the now empty, and un-lined cookie sheet standing upright and leave a little space between the slices. When done with all the cutting return to the oven for 40 minutes of baking and reverse halfway through baking as you did before. Let cool completely. At this point you can leave them as they are or you can dip one end in dipping chocolate if you would like. Bakers chocolate make dipping tubs that are microwaveable that are perfect for this! When done cooling then place in an airtight canister, or you can stack in a ziplock bag.

If you did a good job shaping you should have about 50 biscotti.

Now for the price of 2 pieces of Nonni's store bought you made 50 fresh homemade! That'll last you more than a month if you have one each morning. Or almost a month if you and your hubby both divulge daily.

As far as substitutions go, I have used Heath bits o' brickle instead of some of the nuts and that was really great with the end dipped in milk chocolate after the biscotti was done baking. I have also grown very fond of pecans along with the ghirardelli double chocolate in the mix, and later melt some for dipping as it is very smooth and similiar to milk chocolate but more flavorful and much smoother.

I found the Ghirardelli dipping chocolate, and the Bakers microwaveable tubs at worldstoreone online.