biscotti recipes

[roundabout1]

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.

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).

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

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?

Excellent news thanks

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.

I made them.

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!

oh that takes the biscuit biscotti!

Ooh, I may try these

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.

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

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.