Chocolate Almond Biscotti

After popping into Starbucks the other day and seeing the rather sad looking biscotti, shrink wrapped and waiting at the till, I decided to make my own. This recipe is adapted from Joyofbaking  but I can never leave anything alone so I’ve made a few changes. The wholemeal flour makes them a little more substantial and not quite as sweet.

Chocolate and Almond Biscotti

Ingredients

100g flaked almonds

135g granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp almond extract

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

100g wholemeal flour

125g plain flour

150g dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 180C

Toast almonds for 5 minutes, until they start to brown.

Flake the chocolate with a knife so you have medium slivers.

In a large bowl beat eggs with sugar until pale and fluffy (should take about 5 minutes with an electric hand mixer) Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.

In another bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add this to the egg mix and fold with a wooden spoon, when combined add toasted almonds and chocolate slivers.

Transfer the dough onto a lined baking sheet. Form it into two long strips about 30cm long and 8cm high. The dough is pretty sticky, so wetting your hands can help. Or just get messy like I did (more to lick off my fingers)

Bake for about 25 minutes until firm.

Remove and allow to cool enough to cut. I left mine for 15 minutes.

Reduce oven to 150C

Slice the loaves into strips on the diagonal, mine are about 3cm thick. Place cut side down on the baking sheet, don’t worry if they aren’t quite solid, they will harden with the second baking.

Bake for about 10 minutes on each side, or until they start to turn golden brown.

Allow to cool and enjoy with something to dunk them in!