December 25, 2008

Chocolate-Pistachio Biscotti

I'm generally not a huge fan of biscotti, but for some reason it's been sounding good to me lately.  I really wanted to make some with chocolate and pistachios, so I found a recipe for Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti and just substituted pistachios.  It turned out well, and some lucky folks will be getting some as late Christmas gifts.  


Start out by toasting 1-1/2 cups pistachios.  


While the pistachios are toasting, mix the following: 3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa, and 1/2 tsp salt.


Beat 2 sticks of softened, unsalted butter with 2 cups of sugar. 


Add 3 eggs, 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/2  tsp almond extract.  


Beat until combined, and then add in the flour/cocoa mixture in batches.  


Once the dry ingredients are incorporated, add in 1/2 cup chopped pistachios, 1 cup whole pistachios, and 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips. 


Mix them all together until they're pretty evenly distributed.  It's pretty thick batter, so it takes a little muscle.  On the bright side, you work off so many calories mixing the batter that you can eat more biscotti in the end!


Divide the dough in two and form each half into a log on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Mine were about 12 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 1 inch tall.  Try to make them similar in size.  If they're different sizes you have to keep an eye on them to the smaller one doesn't burn.  


Bake them at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until they are slightly firm.  While they're baking you can start with the clean-up.  Maybe even lick the bowl a few times because it looks like brownie batter.  And it kind of tastes like it, too.  It was so good that I look stoned.  Maybe if I was stoned I would have an excuse for eating biscotti batter like there was no tomorrow.  I guess it is the holidays.  I'll eat all the batter I want.  


After 35 minutes or so take the biscotti out of the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes.  Then transfer it to a cutting board and with a serrated knife slice it into about 3/4-inch pieces.  After it's all sliced put the slices on their sides back on the cookie sheets, and bake for another 15 minutes.  They may not be totally hard after 15 minutes, but they will harden up more after you take them out of the oven.  


Transfer to cooling racks right after taking them out of the oven.  I just realized that I should have melted some chocolate to dip the ends in.  You should learn from my mistakes and dip your biscotti in molten chocolate.  Enjoy!


Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home