Cakes, cupcakes and fruit crumbles are my favorite baked treats. Only because they require very little hands-on time apart from mixing up a few ingredients. Any recipe that requires me to handle some sort of dough makes me think twice. I dillydally, toying with the idea in my mind before I get around to actually trying it out. Baking bread or pizza is fun because the dough is firm and I get to punch it to my heart’s content. It’s the sticky cookie dough that gets me. Actually I rarely eat cookies because of this reason alone. I hate the store-bought ones (too sweet…ugh!) and am too lazy to make my own.
That was the only thing that kept me from baking biscotti so far. Any time I craved one, I popped into the nearest Starbucks. Or I would buy a pack of rusk, which is also a kind of double-baked bread popular in India (introduced long back by the British). I somehow love the rather plain taste of a crispy slice of rusk, making it the perfect accompaniment to a steaming hot cup of tea or coffee.
Last weekend our local Starbucks ran out of biscotti and I had nothing better to do all afternoon. It was time to get baking then. I adapted this simple recipe for a chocolate biscotti. I made two logs, one with just cocoa powder and the other with some chopped cashew nuts added to the chocolatey dough. You can mix in any kind of chopped nuts, dried fruits or chocolate chips to the dough.
You will need:
- All purpose flour – 2 cups + a little extra for dusting
- Cocoa powder (unsweetened) – 1/2 cup
- Baking soda – 1 tsp
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
- Butter – 6 tbsp, softened
- Sugar – 1 cup
- Eggs – 2, large
- Vanilla/almond extract – 1 tsp
- Nuts, dried fruits or chocolate chips – a small handful, roughly chopped (optional)
- Powdered sugar – 1 tbsp, for dusting
How to:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg.F and line a 9 inch x 13 inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper.
- Sift the dry ingredients (except sugar) together and keep aside. Whisk well till combined.
- In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar till creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla/almond extract and mix well.
- Add the flour mixture to this and combine well to make a dough. Add the nuts or chocolate chips too, if desired. The dough will come together, but will be slightly sticky. Add a light dusting of flour if it seems too sticky to handle.
- Divide the dough in half. Flour your hands well and form each dough ball into slightly flat logs of size 12 inches x 2 inches on the baking pan. Make sure to space the logs at least 2 inches apart. Lightly dust with powdered sugar on top.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or till the tops are cracked and slightly firm to the touch. Do not turn off the oven yet.
- Remove the baked logs from the oven and cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan. Transfer the logs to a cutting board and slice them diagonally. Slice them thin (1/2 inch) or thick (3/4 – 1 inch) as per your wish.
- Bake the slices for 10-12 minutes or until nicely crisped. You may need to do this batches. Cool completely on a wire rack and store biscotti in airtight containers.
- Enjoy your biscotti dunked in a cup of warm milk or hot tea/coffee.
Notes:
- Traditional biscotti is crisp and dry. But you can slice the logs thick and bake them for a slightly lesser time the second time around, for biscotti with a crisp exterior and slightly chewy centers.
- You can also totally ditch the second round of baking and you will end up with slightly crunchy cookie-like biscotti. Maybe then you cannot call them biscotti… unicotti maybe?!! I ended up with a small batch of these ‘unicotti’ as my hubby is not a big fan of the super crisp, rusk-like ones. They are delicious nevertheless!
- You can also dip the biscotti in melted chocolate or drizzle some on top.
Enjoy some light biscotti on a breezy, warm and sunny Spring afternoon!
Even if you’ve never baked biscotti before or if you are a pro at it, do try this recipe!
Next on my list are panna cotta and cannoli, two of my other must-try-at-home-sometime Italian desserts. They have such cute names too, right?!! I also have a neat idea in my mind on how to make cannoli without using the traditional molds and deep-frying the shells. That’s another nemesis of mine – boiling hot oil. Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed I get around to making them soon!
If you like what you see, please follow my blog via Email (button on the right), Facebook, Pinterest or Bloglovin’, or maybe even all four!!!
I am linking this up at these awesome blogs.
- C.R.A.F.T
- A Blossoming Life
- Skip To My Lou
- The Dedicated House
- Between Naps on the Porch
- Home Stories A To Z
- My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
- A Stroll Thru Life
- Cedar Hill Ranch
- Coastal Charm
- Elizabeth & Co
- House On The Way
- Savvy Southern Style
- The NY Melrose Family
- The Turquoise Home
- Living Well Spending Less
- Design Dining and Diapers
- The Novice Gardener
- The Shabby Nest
- French Country Cottage
- Common Ground
- My Romantic Home
- The Charm of Home
- Thirty Handmade Days
- Crafts a la Mode
- Love of Family and Home
- DIY Show Off
- Nifty Thrifty Things
- By Stephanie Lynn
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe it is amazing I just baked a batch. I have always wanted to try and bake biscottis but never actually got to it until now. It is perfect, slightly sweet and delicious! And the best part is that it’s So easy. Can’t wait to make more!
Thank you so much for the awesome feedback. I am so happy you enjoyed these cookies!
These look AMAZING! Thanks for linking up with “Try a New Recipe Tuesday.” Hope you can join us again this week. http://our4kiddos.blogspot.com/2014/05/try-new-recipe-tuesday-may-20.html
Thank you, Lisa. Sure will!
Al time fav:) pics r amazing
Thank you very much 🙂
Hi Anjana – these look really delicious and I also love the idea of unicotti! Thanks for bringing them to Fiesta Friday!
Thanks for visiting, Selma!
Anjana, these look amazing – I can’t believe it’s your first go…
You’ve inspired me, and I’m going to make some this afternoon!
Thank you – have a wonderful weekend!
Emma 🙂
Thank you. I am happy to have inspired you!
Anjana, your Biscottis look awesome 🙂
Thank you so much!
They look perfect, I like the name unicotti 🙂 Awesome pictures too!
Thank you, Apsara!
love this recipe! I do it for my kids! thanks for bringing her Fiesta Friday!greetings from Italy
Simi
Thanks for visiting, Simi!
Your biscotti look fabulous, Anjana! From the appearance of your biscotti, it looks as if your logs of dough were perfectly shaped. The slices seem to be made by a pro! Your recipe, with the cocoa, sounds absolutely delicious.
Thank you, Nancy. It was my first time, I just chanced upon the perfect recipe I guess!
Hi Anjana, thank you for bringing these to this weeks Fiesta Friday, the photos are fabulous, I think it was great use of your afternoon!! Enjoy the party 🙂
Thank you, Elaine!
These look like they were made by a pro, Anjana. The hubby loves biscotti, so gonna try this recipe one of these days 🙂
Aww… thank you. Do try it, its a simple recipe!
Awesome biscotti, Anjana! Nice plating…please pass me one! 🙂
Thank you, Sreedevi! I actually have some left, if only you could come on over… haha!!
Anjana those biscotti are perfectly shaped, I’m sure that they were amazing! Beautiful photos!
Thank you 🙂
I love your photos … May I know what camera do you use? I have been contemplating to invest in a good dslr camera with reasonable price. I currently counting on my pocket Leica and many times could not capture the object the way I want it.
Thank you.
I use a Canon EOS 7D. More than the camera, it takes practice to get a good pic. I’ve had the same camera since when I started blogging, but there is a world of difference in my pics from now and a year ago!
Good luck with your camera hunt!!
These are AMAZING Anjana x
Thank you dear!
Ok, so here’s another recipe I’ve always wanted to try but was afraid to ask :)). If you can promise me that these are not as difficult to make, I’d love to try making these sometime soon. Thanks Anjana. Are there any tricks or tips for biscotti-making? I like the idea that you can control the sugar too
I was pleasantly surprised at how well these turned out, Loretta. Just make sure to work quickly when shaping the dough, it is just slightly sticky. Some recipes omit the butter, but it really helps to bind it together.
Other than that, the recipe is pretty straight-forward. The recipe that I referred to looked good and it turned out really well for me.
Good luck! Let me know if you try it.
I love Biscottis and yours look devilishly delicious.
Thanks Sonal!
Wow, I made biscotti once… and I was terrible 🙂 yours look perfect to me. Wish I could bite into one. I like the picture styling. Good job!
Thanks Namrata. BTW, what did you sub for the eggs in your recipe? I wonder if that was the reason.
It was some eggless recipe. Picked it off the internet. But I am not givin up… lookin for that one promising perfect way to bake biscottis
Wow! These biscottis are amazingly delicious. You can mainly see it from the photo alone. <3
Thank you so much, Jhuls!
yum!!
🙂
Dear Anjana,
I’d like to thank you, for those wonderful recepies and the much of work you make yourself, with picturing and explaning!
I’m into Indian food, and always amazed when you just try something different and mix!
As I’m in Germany, it’s sometimes difficult with the messures
and if I can express a wish: a cookie recepie with white chocolate and macademia nuts.
I used to eat them when I was in USA, but never found, the best recepie, as they float away and get hard, or stay in form, but then they’re chewie as brownies.
xxx J
That is very kind of you. Thank you.
I write in cups and spoon measures as I am currently based in the States. You can find some help with conversion here – http://www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml
As for the cookies, I will keep them in mind and post a recipe if I am successful in getting them right.
Thanks again. Keep reading! Appreciate it!!