Chocolate, Almond and Walnut Biscotti

Nupur of Onehotstove has announced an event called Blogbites #2 - Copycat Edition. So as per the event rules, this recipe is inspired by another blog and is something that we often buy from the store and I have never tried to make at home.

Today I am going to make Chocolate, Almond and Walnut Biscotti. This recipe is inspired by Nupur's Chocolate Walnut Biscotti. Biscotti means twice baked cookie. Nonni's Biscotti is our all time favorite!! Its a dry and hard cookie and tastes divine when dunked in coffee. You can find out more about biscotti here. Nupur also has a really good write up about biscotti on her blog with a nice and simple recipe and an equally lovely picture. Reading her post made me realize for the first time that this was something I could manage to make at home :)

So here goes....... I used Nupur's basic recipe and added ingredients that we like in a biscotti. For the dough, I mixed together - with a hand mixer (if you have the electric mixer, that's great) 3 tbsp butter (room temp) with 1/3 cup sugar and 1 egg. Then I added 1/4 tsp vanilla, (it enhances the flavor of chocolate). After that I added 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 pinch salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tbsp cocoa powder (used Hershey's as I had it on hand), 1 tsp coffee. Since I did not have chocolate chips on hand, used 1/2 big size milk chocolate bar (shredded) - the other half was gobbled up by my kids! and 4 tbsp toasted and coarsely ground nuts - I used walnut and almonds. 

Then I shaped the dough into a log and baked it in pre-heated 350 degree oven for 25 mins like the recipe says. I cooled it for 30 mins (was distracted talking to a friend on the phone). Then cut with a serrated knife, (yes, it was crumbly as Nupur said so be careful while cutting) then baked it again for 10 mins in the oven.
The result - Simply divine biscotti!!! The verdict: Kids - were absolutely thrilled, Husband - loved it too [after all the couch is not so comfortable at night now, is it ? ;)]

Jokes apart, it really came close to Nonni's biscotti that we all love so much and my family couldn't have enough. Will be baking more now instead of buying, so thanks Nupur for inspiring me to try it out :))

This entry goes to Nupur's Blogbites #2 - Copycat Edition.