Biscotti if you Please...

Here it is - the biscotti recipe several of you requested. I've got mine made, and some cute little snowmen bags to put them in. Tied with squiggle ribbon, they'll be sweet little gifts for my girlfriends this coming Monday evening, when we meet for wine and dessert.

Chocolate and Almond Biscotti

1 1/2 cups blanched whole almonds
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
7/8 cup white sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp whiskey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast the almonds in a shallow pan for 12-15 minutes, shaking the pan a few times til they are lightly colored. Set pan aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 flat edged cookie sheets with foil, shiny side up.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the sugar and mix well. Place 1/2 cup of this dry miture into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade. Add about half a cup of the toasted almonds and process for 30 seconds (without the dry mixture they'll shoot around the bowl like little bullets!).

Add the mixture to the sifted ingredients. Add the remaining almonds and continue to process for a few seconds til all almonds are chopped. Add chocolate pieces and stir well.

In a separate bowl beat eggs, vanilla and whiskey. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir til moist. Place dough on wax paper, and with wet hands press it into a round mound. With a long, heavy knife, cut the dough into equal quarters. Keeping hands wet, form each quarter into strips about 9 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1/2 inch high. Round the ends.

Place two strips crosswise on each of the cookie sheets. Bake for 25 minutes. If bakingn more than one sheet at a time, reverse the sheets top to bottom and from back to front halfway through the cooking time.

Using a metal spatula remove foil from cookie sheets and let cool for 20 minutes on cutting board. Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees.

With a serrated knife carefully cut at an angle into slices about 1/4 inch wide. Place the slices, cut side down onto unlined cookie sheets.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, reversing sheets top to bottom and front to back after 15 minutes.

Turn oven off and open the door allowing biscotti to cool in the oven. When cool, store in an airtight container (or put in pretty little bags, tied at the top to give as gifts).

The recipe sounds a bit long, but it's actually very easy. The dough is easy to work with, and if the cutting directions sound at all confusing just think of what the biscotti in Starbucks looks like, and go from there. If you slice the biscotti like you would a loaf of french bread, at an angle in long slices, you'll do just fine.

This is what mine look like, not real beautiful, but yummy!

As a last step, I melt about 1/4 cup each of white and chocolate cake frosting in glass bowls, then use a spoon to drizzle the icing over the pieces of biscotti. While the icing is still wet I sprinkle them with cookie sprinkles, shaved chocolate, etc. It adds a dash of sweetness to the taste. Go wild - have fun, enjoy!

They look nicer, bundled up in a pretty bag with a 'from the kitchen of Bev' tag.

PS I replaced the chocolate chips with heath chips. You could use peanut butter, white chocolate, whatever! I got this recipe from http://www.allrecipes.com/ where they're bound to have more. If you wanted to dress this gift up a bit more, you could add a lb. of flavored coffee, and a nice mug. The perfect 'teacher gift' or thanks for being a great boss, or babysitter, etc.