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Food/Recipes

biscotti recipes

15 replies

roundabout1 · 30/11/2010 22:18

I thought of making biscotti as christmas presents, as presumably they will keep longer than cookies. Any relatively plain recipes, the only ones i've found have lots of nuts in them & want to give them to families with little ones so would prefer a plainer or chocolate recipe.

OP posts:
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Wigeon · 01/12/2010 19:31

You can just omit the nuts and add dried fruit / chocolate / whatever. I found a lovely recipe here for Christmas biscotti which worked really well last year. Will try to find it!

Cranberries nice and Christmassy. Or how about pecans / walnuts instead of harder nuts like almonds? Bit more child friendly (or at least toddler friendly).

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Wigeon · 01/12/2010 19:34

Here it is. Just omit the almonds (I would feed pistachios to a toddler, although not a baby).

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HopeForTheJingleBells · 01/12/2010 19:36

Here's the one I use every Christmas (have copied it from my post in a Christmas thread). You could just leave out the nuts, and the coffee, it wouldn't make much of a different tbh:

Chocolate Mocca Biscotti

Note: this biscotti is ?twice-baked? but is not as dry and hard as the usual biscotti you can get. If you want a drier, harder/crisper biscuit, I think you could probably turn down the oven temp at the second baking and bake for longer until they had dried out, but I have never tried this!

Ingredients

Dough

100g dark chocolate, grated
1 heaped teaspoon instant coffee powder mixed with 1 tsp hot water
260g plain flour
10g cocoa
½ tsp ground cinnamon
100g icing sugar
125g butter at room temp
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
Seeds of 1 vanilla pod (I usually use a few drops of vanilla essence instead)
100g whole, skinned almonds (have also done this with walnuts and pecans)

Decoration
50g milk chocolate


Method
Preheat oven to 180°C

  1. Sieve the flour, cocoa and cinnamon, and mix together with all the other dough ingredients. It will form a stiff, sticky dough. Try to handle it as little as possible and use a floured surface & hands for the next bit!


  1. Form the dough into 3 rolls each 20cm long, place on baking parchment on tray and bake on the 2nd from bottom rail (track? runner? no idea what it?s called!) in oven for 15 mins. Take out and allow to cool.


  1. Slice the rolls diagonally into 1cm wide slices. Place on baking paper and bake for 12mins. Allow to cool completely.


  1. Melt deco chocolate in bowl. Dip each biscuit in halfway. Place on non-stick paper and allow to harden.


I usually give them a dusting of icing sugar mixed with cocoa before serving, and keep them in a tin.
You need a good, sharp knife for the slicing because the dough is still quite soft, and you want to get through the nuts without ?ripping? everything iyswim.

They dry out more the longer you keep them, which is not necessarily a bad thing with this type of .
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taffetazatyousantaclaus · 01/12/2010 20:02

HopeForTheBest - thanks so much for reposting your biscotti recipe I was going to trawl the thread looking for it but couldn't face it

Two q's.

  1. We are snowed in and I would like to make them tomorrow, have all the ingreds except milk choc. Could I substitute for dark effectively?
  2. Given the deco choc isn't tempered, will it go whitish within a week or so? I was thinking biscotti for the same reason as the op ie good as a make ahead gift ( whilst stuck in house going stir crazy )but will the choc deco go naff between now and Xmas?
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HopeForTheJingleBells · 01/12/2010 20:46

1a. Snowed in! OMG where are you?! :o
1b. Yes. I use milk chocolate because my dh is a chocolate wuss not fond of dark, but they would be fabulous with dark chocolate.

  1. I usually use couverture chocolate which I have found melts smoother than regular chocolate. I have no idea what this is in English (I am in Germany). But, it has on occason happened that I have run out of the couverture stuff and have bunged in carefully blended in various odds and ends of chocolate and it's all been fine.


I've never noticed them going in any way whitish. I do dust them with a mix of icing sugar and cocoa though, so maybe that covers things up? But I don't think between now and Christmas is long enough for that to happen. I'm pretty sure I've had them hanging around for around 4 weeks or so with no problems.

HTH :)
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taffetazatyousantaclaus · 01/12/2010 20:56

Excellent news thanks Xmas Smile

In Kent, fgs! I wonder if couverture is like posh cooking chocolate? Anyhow, only have Lindt 70 pc in so that will have to do. Will dust liberally with icing sugar as you suggest. Thanks again.

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HopeForTheJingleBells · 01/12/2010 21:11

I think the couverture here is acutally cheap covering chocolate, you can get it white, milk or dark and it's usually sold in really thick blocks (a good inch high).
It does taste lovely though :)

Have fun baking. I must get a move on and do all mine, I've done NOTHING yet :o

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taffetazatyousantaclaus · 03/12/2010 15:09

I made them. Xmas Grin

Oh but they are goooood! How on earth am I supposed to save them as gifts??

I didn't half dip in the end as there didn't seem enough melted chococlate but drizzled artistically instead.

I love the coffee/chocolate/cinnamon combo, its divine. Tastes of Christmas!

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HopeForTheJingleBells · 03/12/2010 16:45

Sooooo glad you liked them!


That little bit of cinnamon really makes a difference doesn't it? I make a variety of Christmas bisuits every year (it's very traditional here in Germany), and we all have our various favourites, but I must admit I always put a few of these ones to the side just for myself.
They are heavenly with a really good espresso.

Xmas Smile

Although actually, I think what we really need here is Xmas Biscuit

Xmas Grin Xmas Grin Xmas Grin

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taffetazatyousantaclaus · 03/12/2010 17:19

oh that takes the biscuit biscotti! Xmas Biscuit Xmas Biscuit Xmas Biscuit

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BertieBotts · 03/12/2010 17:25

Ooh, I may try these Xmas Smile

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HopeForTheJingleBells · 03/12/2010 17:35

PMSL @ taffeta

Berite do, you know you want to Xmas Wink

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taffetazatyousantaclaus · 03/12/2010 18:22

Bertie - if you are going to make them, follow Hope's tip for cutting with a very sharp knife. Most recipes say to use a serrated knife, so I used a sharp breadknife, but my automatic movement with a breadknife is a sawing action. DO NOT SAW! Cut straight down, hard, in one action, then as Hope says, you don't get the tearing as the dough is very soft at this stage.

My couple of mistakes were wolfed down by an over eager DH. Xmas Biscuit

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roundabout1 · 04/12/2010 23:41

thanks for those recipes, I will give them a try. Any idea how long they last when kept?

OP posts:
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taffetazatyousantaclaus · 05/12/2010 16:00

At least a month, if not longer, if in an airtight container. As Hope says, her recipe gives a very slightly soft biscotti that hardens up over in time to a more trad hard one.

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