Nutella and Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Here's the next installment of the newly-formed Baking Club. Last month, we made mango pound cake and this time we decided to try something none of us had baked before, Biscotti. I was a bit apprehensive. I've tasted bad biscotti - too dense or too eggy. I was hoping mine would turn out well the first time and then I could be confident to try other recipes. Well, this turned out just perfect.

I followed the recipe from Baking Bites, making a few adjustments along the way. All the recipes on that blog are just amazing and fail-safe.

Biscotti are easy to make. And if I'm saying that, let me tell you, its really very easy. You mix all the dough ingredients together, shape into a 1/2" thick rectangle and bake. Remove the baked log, cut into strips, turn the strips over onto their side and bake again. Now remove and turn the strips over onto their other side and bake again. There is not much more to it. Absolutely perfect biscotti.

Biscotti

(recipe adapted from Baking Bites)

I got about 14 biscotti, but maybe I should've cut them thinner?

1 1/8 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

3 Eggs

1/2 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Nutella

1/4 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together (that is, the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder).

In a separate bowl, whip the eggs in an electric blender until frothy. Add the sugar and beat again. And the nutella and beat. Now fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Since I'd used the same number of eggs, but halved the other ingredients, my batter was runny, and I couldn't shape it. So I poured the batter into a small rectangular baking pan and hoped for the best.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and turn the oven down to 150 deg C. I took out what resembled a crumbly cake. Using a serrated knife, I cut the cake into long strips. Turn the strips over onto their side, arrange on the baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Turn the biscotti onto the other side and bake for a further 12 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. You could also dip the biscotti into melted chocolate to get a triple chocolate effect. Or you could add nuts, orange peel... the possibilities are endless with biscotti. I cant wait to try other variations. But I know that I'll never need another recipe. This one was perfect!

Check out the biscotti from my fellow Baking Clubbers: Arundati, Arundhati, Nandita and Aparna.