Chocolate Chips Almond Biscotti are crunchy sweet treats that tastes lovely when dipped in a cup of Hot Coffee or Tea. ‘Baked Twice’ until completely dry – they are native to Italy.
I am not really sure if you actually noticed that I have been taking good long breaks between every post and also a bit mia from Social Media. Well, there is nothing to worry really !! But a move is going to happen very soon within UK and this is calling for a lot of preparation in the back end. After all the school runs, my blogging hours are actually devoted to cleaning and dumping all the unwanted stuff… It’s best to carry as little junk as possible when I am getting a chance to move and start afresh… Isn’t it ?? Sometimes its so hard to actually part away – but the question is How much do I actually need it ? and How much do I actually use it ?? Agree or Disagree !
After the India trip, I actually ran through the whole pantry , clearing any expired ready mixes, sauces or even chocolates . Organising all the pulses in the containers tidily, making my life a lot easier every day. No more living out of the packets !!! Phew !! But it was much needed. A month later – still things are going well in my pantry and I am so glad the actual summer cleaning happened there.
Sometime earlier this month, folks at Aldi buzzed me to participate in their Aldi’s Amazing Bakes campaign running around the Great British Bake Off season. I was presumptuous to bake something that I have never done before. No Chocolate Cake, No Cookies, No Brownies – So what else could I actually bake ? Biscotti it is !!!
All the ingredients for the recipe were shopped at Aldi and I really love the place for quality products that are available at a reasonable price.
Google is my best friend whenever I am stuck for recipes and a recipe from Paul Hollywood ( one of the judges of GBBO) came to my rescue. Since it was my maiden attempt, I tried following the recipe to T, making a very subtle change to suit our palette.
They are crunchy as it should be and tastes heaven when dunked in a cup of Coffee.
Chocolate Chips Almond Biscotti
Prep Time: 10 Min | Cooking Time: 1 Hour
Ingredients
250g Plain Flour + 30g Flour for dusting
250g Caster Sugar
2 Medium Eggs or 1.5 Large Eggs
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
135g blanched almonds
100g chocolate chips
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
Heat your oven to 160C ( fan ). Prepare your baking tray by lining a parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, add flour,sugar, baking powder and stir well. Add one egg at a time and stirring as you add in. Knead the dough by hand until firm, ensuring it’s not sticky.
Add roughly chopped almonds,chocolate chips, orange zest and vanilla extract and knead again.
Divide the dough into 2 and make 2 long logs approximately 4cm wide. Carefully place them 5 cm apart on the lined baking tray as the dough spreads while baking. Bake for approximately 30 – 35 minutes. Leave the logs to cool for good 10 minutes plus whilst the log begins to slowly firm up. Transfer them to a wooden board and slice them diagonally into 2 cm thick.
Arrange them back on to a baking tray with the cut side up and bake them for another 20 -30 minutes or until the biscotti are dry right through the centre. Do turn them at about half time.
Transfer them to a wire rack, allowing them to cool down. Store them in an airtight container and enjoy with a cup of hot Cuppa.
Recipe adapted from here
My first experience making biscotti kind of failed and then I never got to making it! I really don’t know why… 🙁 Yours is telling me to bake a batch soon… Looks so good… Cleaning can be really hard but it definitely does help us manage our pantry a bit…
Nothing like a good pantry clean out – I need a bit of motivation to do this too. Usually I go to Ikea and buy new jars etc. to get me to swtich from packets to the jars LOL!
Aldi is one of the most popular stores in Germany. Your biscotti comes at the right time too – just in time for Christmas baking in a few weeks time. Looks divine!
I have been meaning to make some biscotti for a while now. These look stunning 🙂 And good luck with the move.
Thank you so much Kankana… All that I need at this point!!
Stunning Biscoti. Definately my sister’s kid would like them