Chocolate Biscotti

As promised as part of the Christmas Giveaway post, I have tried out a recipe from the 200 Christmas Recipes cookbook. I have never tried baking biscotti before, and this recipe seemed easy enough. I was also attracted by the almonds, chocolate and orange zest - a pretty delicious combination from previous experiences!

Ingredients:
50g slightly salted butter
50g caster sugar
175g SR flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
finely grated rind of 1 orange, plus 1 tbsp orange juice
50g polenta
1 egg, lightly beaten
100g unblanched almonds, roughly chopped
75g milk chocolate chips
150g plain dark chocolate, broken into pieces
50g white chocolate broken into pieces

Method:

Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the flour, baking powder, coriander, orange rind and juice, polenta and egg and mix to form a firm dough. Knead in the almonds. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently work in the choc chips. Divide the mixture in half and shape each piece into a log about 23 cm (9 inches) long.

Place on a greased baking sheet, spaced well apart, and flatten slightly. Bake in preheated oven (160 degrees celcius) for 30 minutes or until risen and just firm. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 15 minutes. Transfer to a board and, using a serrated knife, cut into 1cm thick slices.

Arrange on baking sheet, cut sides down, and bake for 15 minutes until crip. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Melt the plain dark and white chocolate in 2 separate heatproof bowls over pans of simmering water. Line a tray or clean baking sheet with nonstick baking paper. Dip about one third of each biscuit in the plain chocolate, letting the excess fall back into the bowl. Pace each biscuit on the baking paper.

Drizzle thin lines of metled white chocolate over the plain dark chocolate. Leave in a cool place to set for about 1 hour.


My notes:

• My biscotti crumbled a bit when I was slicing it.. perhaps I did not cook it quite long enough - may have taken it out before 30 mins was up.
  
• Couldn't be bothered too much with the dark choc dipping & drizzling of the white chocolate, so I just drizzled dark chocolate instead and it worked well :) The original recipe varies on this.
  

Don't forget to go enter for a chance to win this cookbook. Click here to jump to the giveaway post.