You were expecting pumpkin pie today, right? Logical, but I really needed a break from baking pumpkin stuff, so, biscotti.
My Mom bought a package of individually wrapped biscotti a little while back, thinking, this is a nice little treat to have with a cup of tea or coffee, or to have on hand if a friend pops by. Unfortunately the biscotti tasted awful. I believe the main culprit was the addition of anise to the biscotti. I know that anise is kind of a foodie rock star spice these days, but I hate it. Loath it with a wild and abandoned passion. I suspect my Mom is of the same mind about anise.
So my Mom, wise woman that she is said to me, I really need some decent biscotti, will you please bake some for me? No anise, and it really needs to have chocolate all down one side, plus can you make them about 100 calories? (Mom is sagely health conscious and eats her sweets in moderation.) The challenge had been given and I… promptly forgot about it for a few weeks.
But needing a break from pumpkin related food I set to work. The first thing I decided was that I didn’t want to sacrifice any flavor to cut the calories, so scaling down the portion size was a must. (If you don’t really care about the calories in your biscotti you can easily make them larger by making one large rectangle before baking rather then two smaller.) Wether you decide to make them small or large real butter, sugar, almonds, dried cherries, and good chocolate make these biscotti worth their calories, so give them a try.
Mini Chocolate Dipped Cherry Almond Biscotti
Yields 28 biscotti. Each biscotti is aprox 100-110 calories.
Ingredients
Biscotti
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3.5 oz (about 3/4 cup crumbled) almond paste
- 8 tablespoons of butter chilled and grated
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 1/2 cup almonds
Chocolate
- 6 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons cream or milk
Instructions
- 1. In a large mixing bowl add sugar, crumbled almond paste, and grate (with a cheese greater) or cut in chilled butter. Add flour baking powder and salt. Using a fork mix until crumbly.
- 2. Add dried cherries and almonds. Mix together.
- 3. In a separate bowl whisk together eggs and vanilla extract until the eggs are bubbly.
- 4. Add eggs mixture to the flour crumble mixture and mix well with fork. When well mixed use hands to press dough tother to form a ball.
- 5. On a lightly floured counter, roll dough into a long 1″ thick snake. Cut in half.
- 6. Transfer each half to a foil lined baking tray. Press each snake down into a flat on top, rectangle shape. Try and keep the thickness even all along the rectangle. Pat sides to flatten as well.
- 7. Bake at 350* for about 35 min, until rectangles are browned and relatively firm to the touch. Remove from oven and cool for 15 min.
- 8. Slice each rectangle on the diagonal into 14 slices. Place each slice flat on the baking tray and return to the oven to bake for an additional 10-15 min.
- 9. Remove from oven and cool completely before dipping in chocolate.
- 10. In a small saucepan melt semi sweet chocolate chips and cream (or milk) together, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
- 11. Dip the backs of each biscotti into the chocolate and place chocolate side up to cool. Drizzling the chocolate or dipping one end of the biscotti lengthwise in the chocolate also creates a pretty effect.
Notes
- To make larger biscotti in step five roll the snake out 2″ thick and do not cut the snake in half. Transfer to the foil line tray in one piece and press down well. This will make a much thicker rectangle and eventually longer biscotti.
Developing this recipe was actually the first time I ever made biscotti and I admit at first I had no idea how to shape the dough to make that great little biscotti shape, so I decided to take some pictures along the way so you can see what your looking for at each step. (Though I figure everyone has chocolate dipping down so I stopped prior to that.)
Sugar on the bottom of the bowl, crumbled almond paste (right), grated butter (left).
Flour and other dry ingredients, nuts and dried cherries added right on top of the butter.
Everything mixed together.
Whisked egg, look for bubbles.
Add the egg.
All ingredients mixed together.
Form a ball of dough.
Roll into a log.
Shape into rectangles.
Bake once.
Cut on the diagonal.
Bake twice.
So I just made these and I guess I misunderstood what you meant by lower midlde and upper positions Can you please explain that step? I have 5 racks in my oven and I did it at number 2 and number 4 (right below midlde and right above midlde). Can you please explain the correct way?? Also, the second time around please verify where in the oven I would place them! Thanks!
Your oven is a lot larger then mine! In your oven I would use the rack that is just above the middle. When you return the biscotti to the oven I would use the same rack. Hope this helps.