RECIPE: Chocolate Biscotti by Mario Batali

This week for the FNCCC we were working with Mario Batali's recipes.  I love the name of his dishes Fegato di Pollo alla Finanziera (Chicken Liver), Beccafichi in Teglia (Baked Quail), Zuppa di Raffano (Horseradish soup)...they sound so glamorous and beautiful.  I can even hear him pronouncing the Italian words with the rolling "r".

I chose to make his Chocolate Biscotti.  I made a few changes, by adding a little salt, substituting some whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose kind, and substituting almonds for hazelnuts.  Of course, you can't go wrong with dipping them into chocolate and maybe drizzling them with white chocolate!

Chocolate Dipped Chocolate & Almond Biscotti

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1-2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup whole almonds

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

1/4 cup white bark or white chocolate chips, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, whole wheat flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt.  

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks and vanilla extract.  

Add wet mix to the dry and stir until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes.  Add almonds and chocolate chips and mix until just incorporated.  Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface.  (I created a giant log about 6"x 10" and then used a long knife to cut it into 3 equal logs 2" x 10".   Rolled them out lightly into a log and placed on greased cooking sheet.)  

Place in oven and bake 20 minutes (the recipe says "until light golden brown", this confused me since we're talking about chocolate...) and remove from the oven. 

Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then cut each log on a light diagonal into 1/2" thick pieces.  Lower heat to 300 degrees F, place the pieces laying on their cut sides on a greased baking sheet and bake another 20 minutes until crisp and dry.  

Cool and serve.  

At this point, I had to deviate and dip them into the melted chocolate, but I couldn't stop there.

Then I melted some white bark and drizzled that over them.  

Oh my, they are pretty enough to box up and ship to Nonni's!

This post has been linked to:

• FNCCC at I Blame my Mother