Dark Chocolate & Almond Biscotti

I had the craziest sunday today! Right after three hours of church, I had a meeting… then another meeting at 4:30, and then another meeting at 5:00, which ran to 6:00 and then a fare-well for my good friend who’s moving! So, instead of cooking a nice meal, which I try to do every sunday- I was actually lucky to fit a Pb&J in there somewhere! Then when I got home, all I wanted to do was relax and watch a little TV, eat something yummy, and drink something warm (because it was FREEZING cold outside) and I thought of biscotti!

It’s kind of funny, because not only have I never made biscotti before in my life, but it’s not something i’d ever buy, because I just never ‘crave’ it… but after making it tonight and loving it as much as I did- I’m probably going to make it ALL the time from now on! It was exactly what I wanted on a cold autumn evening in front of the TV (especially dipped in rich dark chocolate!)

It wasn’t very difficult to make thankfully, because today I wasn’t really in the mood to make anything challenging.

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs, room temperature
4 Tbsp. melted butter, cooled but still liquid
1 tsp. almond extract

Plus melted chocolate of your choice (I used a small bar of Hershey’s “Cadbury’s” dark chocolate which was soooo good!)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, blend together eggs, melted butter, almond extract.  Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in egg mixture and using a rubble spatula, mix until a rough dough forms.

Place dough on a work surface and knead a few times, just until the dough comes together. Add a tiny amount of flour if too sticky.

After seeing this, my two year old, Braden, said: “awesome mum, you’re making a sand-castle!” Don’t be afraid if it looks like… well, a pile of sand, it will come together as you knead it!

Form the dough into a log approximately 1 inch thick, 4 inches wide and 16 inches long.  Place onto the cookie sheet. Bake 30 minutes, until dry and slightly brown. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

Slide cooled log onto a cutting board.  Slice the log diagonally into cookies 1/2 to 1 inch thick, your preference. Place flat onto the cookie sheet; bake 15 minutes. Turn cookies over and bake 15 minutes more. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
Once cooled, melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water, add some cream, sugar and vanilla to taste (I put in about 1/4 cup cream, 1tsp vanilla and 2 Tbsp sugar and thought it was the perfect combination!) Then use a wooden spoon to cover half  of your biscotti with chocolate.I think this is my new favourite autumn evening snack. When I first took a bite, it was so crunchy and dry- that there was no way I was going to Blog about it! But then I dipped it in my Pero (“Caro”) and it got soft and sweet and chocolately and perfect- and I just wanted more, so yep- this is a recipe I definitely want on hand! I hope you love it too!