Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips
4 tablespoons cold butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
In a food processor, mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend for a few seconds to combine.
Add in the butter and the vanilla extract, and blend until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal.
Add in the chocolate chips and egg, and pulse the food processor until the dough is evenly moistened.
Divide your dough into 4 equal-sized portions, and press into log shapes onto your baking sheet.
Bake for 25 minutes, then remove from oven. Cut the log shapes on the diagonal into 1-inch slices, turn them on their sides, and return the baking sheet to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.
Allow to cool, and store in an air-tight container.

My Notes

The best biscotti in the world is my Aunt’s homemade biscotti that I enjoyed last summer while I was visiting. This stuff, for my first attempt, is pretty lovely, too! 🙂
I had to put a towel around the top of my food processor initially since the first few minutes of blending made some flour puff out of the mixer.
I’d tried to press the dough into log shapes right onto my (lightly greased) baking tray but it left too many crumbs that I thought might burn — so next time, I’ll make the shapes onto a cutting board first, then place them on the baking sheet for the final shaping.
This took the entire 25 minutes and then the second baking session of 10 minutes in my oven.

Second Attempt

I used almond extract instead of vanilla extract, and replaced 25 grams of flour with 25 grams of ground cashew nuts. The mixture was less crumby this time, I think last time I wasn’t generous enough with the time it’d take to blend the eggs and chocolate chips in. The dough was easier to form into logs (although I did it in a large bowl first to make sure). They still turn out more “rustic” looking than other biscotti. I’m cool with that. 😎

Mango Version

A later attempt was successful using mango extract instead of the vanilla extract, and orange-flavoured cranberries instead of chocolate chips.

Photos of 1st attempt:

I made a mango flavoured version, and one made using my Chocolate Biscotti recipe:

Photo of mango-flavoured ones on the right, and banana-flavoured ones on the left side of the tray:

Doubling this Recipe

While this recipe probably doubles well, if you have a 2.1 litre food processor you’ll need to do it in 2 separate batches!