Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

Easy to bake and easy to store, this Chocolate Walnut Biscotti will pair perfectly with your morning cup of tea/coffee or a glass of milk. These dry, twice-baked Italian cookies are moreish and so nifty that you can even pair them with an ice cream and serve as dessert, or serve them with a glass of wine. Unlike most cookies, biscotti lasts for few weeks in an airtight jar.

I remember Dad bringing these toasted cookies which tasted like cake but were hard, crispy and perfect to dunk in a glass of warm milk. We would call it cake biscuit. These biscuits were baked fresh in a local bakery and Dad used to always bring those in small batches to last a week. It was only after several years did I learn the actual name of those biscuits. Biscotti! A kind of cookie that is twice-baked, oblong-shaped, dry, crunchy and typically almond flavor.

When Avyan started on solid food, these crunchy cookies became his favorite evening snack. Especially, the kind of biscotti that I grew up eating as it was more easily available in India. The texture of those cookies is tad bit different than the authentic biscotti. But it was equally cake-like and tasty. It was my evening tea’s best friend and soon it became Avyan’s too.

After we moved back last year, the first thing that we did was take a Costco membership. Quite typical, right? On our first trip to Costco, Avyan grabbed this ginormous jar of almond biscotti and he wouldn’t let go. We couldn’t stop him from opening it at the store. Seeing him enjoy the biscotti so much, I obviously got motivated to bake some chocolate biscotti for him. Of course, it took me only half the year to finally implement the plan! But I did it.

Baking biscotti is easy. Like most cookies, you cannot over mix the dough. Otherwise, it will turn hard. Shaping the dough is also quite crucial for uniform even baking. After the first bake, it’s important to let it cool completely before you slice it into oblong-shaped cookies. If you try to slice it while it’s still hot, it will crumble. This happened with me. Once the second bake is done, allow the cookies to cool down completely before you store it.

Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

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Ingredients

• ½ cup butter, softened at room temperature
• ¾ cup sugar
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 eggs
• 1½ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a bowl, add butter, sugar and lemon zest and whisk until its smooth. If you are using the stand mixture, use the paddle attachment.
3. Drop the eggs and whisk until its smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder and salt).
5. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with wet ingredients and whisk until it forms a dough. Do not over mix it.
6. Finally, drop the walnuts and using a rubber spatula, mix it with the dough.
7. Place the dough on a baking tray and shape it like a 2-inch wide log.
8. Place the tray on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 35 minutes.
9. After 35 minutes, take out the tray and place the baked log on a wire rack for 20 to 30 minutes or until it’s cooled down completely and easy to handle.
10. Preheat the oven once again to 350F.
11. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log carefully into ½ inch thick slices.
12. Place the slices on the baking tray and bake it at 350F for 10 minutes and then flip the cookies. Continue baking for another 10 minutes.
13. Once done, cool the cookies on the wire rack before storing it in an airtight jar.