Dutch-process cocoa powder along with chunky pieces of dark chocolate are the two forms of chocolate here. Usually, but not always, some sort of nut is added to biscotti dough - I think hazelnuts would be a fantastic choice here, but we went a different route and chose a more rich walnut. To give the cookies a spicy edge, we added some finely chopped crystallized ginger with the nuts. We either make biscotti with softened butter (more tender) or using only eggs as the binder (more crunchy) - however, this time canola oil is used. The dough was about the same - maybe a little more sticky, but I thought the texture after baking was intriguing. It was a little more soft than using only eggs, yet more crumbly than when we use butter. Even though the texture in your mouth was more crumbly, we still got clean slices when we went to cut the baked biscotti loaves. Since the crystallized ginger has a sweetness to it, it pairs well with the chunky pieces of the slightly bitter dark chocolate - which surprisingly stay somewhat soft and a little gooey in spots.
Ooh, Hazelnuts do sound good for this! Thanks for posting Joe!
ReplyDeleteHow do you like the new blogger?
Mmm, chocolate biscotti! Thanks for warming up the taste buds!
ReplyDeleteSo while the oven was on today... :) These are very good! Dark and chocolatey, not sweet, just extremely delicious. I love the walnuts in it, but may try hazelnuts next time. Or maybe a mixture of both. Why not?! I used dark chocolate chips, and will chop them up a bit next time (as chips, the pieces were still a little too big).
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the recipe, Joe!
Patti - So far so good, I have not had a change to play with the new version much though.
ReplyDeleteT - Anytime!
Kitchen queenvictoria - Thanks for the feed back! Glad to hear that you liked them!