Chocolate Citrus Biscotti

 

I had some requests for the Biscotti recipe from last weeks Project 365. The recipe I used is one I found online from Giada De Laurentiis.

I made a few revisions. Out of necessity I doubled up on the orange zest, I did not have any lemons in the frig, it gave the biscotti and very nice orange flavor that complemented the chocolate very well. I also did not have any fine yellow corn meal so I substituted with my white corn meal corn bread mix I had in the pantry to no ill effect as far as I was concerned. I also added about three heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder to the actual cookie batter. I wanted it to be a double chocolate biscotti not just dipped in chocolate. I use a mixture of bitter sweet chocolate chips as well as milk chocolate chips. I like to combine the two for a more well rounded chocolate flavor, not to mention that the milk chocolate melts very nicely when it it is dipped into a nice hot cup of coffee.

Prep Time:

15 min

Inactive Prep Time:

10 min

Cook Time:

1 hr 10 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

3 dozen (cook’s note: my batch only yielded about 2 dozen)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Stir the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar in another large bowl until pale yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the orange and lemon zests to the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture to the eggs and sugar and beat just until blended (the dough will be soft and sticky). Let stand for 5 minutes.

(Cook’s note: I ended up adding the juice of one orange to my cookie batter, I thick the substitution of the corn meal mix made the batter very dry and the recipe said the batter was supposed to be soft and sticky and mine was a bit on the dry side so I added the orange juice, maybe a few tablespoons. After that was incorporated the cookie batter was nice and soft and sticky)

Using a rubber spatula, transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet, forming two mounds spaced evenly apart. Moisten your hands with water and shape the dough into two 11 by 4-inch logs. Bake until lightly brown, about 35 minutes. Cool the logs for 5 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick diagonal slices. Arrange the biscotti cut side down on the same baking sheet. Bake until the biscotti are pale and golden, about 25 minutes. Cool the biscotti on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Using a metal spatula, transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds, about 1 1/2 minutes total. Dip 1 cut side of each biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off the excess chocolate. Place the biscotti, chocolate side up, on the baking sheet. Refrigerate until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes.

Dip a pastry brush in the cocoa, then lightly brush the cocoa over the chocolate on each biscotti. (Cook’s Note: I used my small strainer and lightly dusted the cocoa over the biscotti rather than brushed it on.)

The biscotti can be made ahead. Store them in an airtight container up to 4 days, or wrap them in foil and freeze in resealable plastic bags up to 3 weeks.

All in all I would give this recipe a good rating. I am thinking of reducing down the cooking time on the second round in the oven to maybe 15 minutes. They did come out very hard. I know Biscotti are supposed to be very crunchy but these were extremely firm. They had very good flavor, not to sweet and the orange flavor came through as well as a notice chocolate flavor and the addition of the corn meal gave the cookie a very nice crunch in the mix.

Well I will be posting either later today the winner of my giveaway or tomorrow so If ya feel lucky and get it in under the wire you still have a bit of time to enter the giveaway! Click here to enter.

Blessings

R