Chocolate Italian Soft Bite Biscotti
Next stop on the Lenten chocolate journey: Italy, obviously. Italian biscotti cookies are ideal for any time of day: alone, alongside espresso, or for dessert with sweet Italian dessert wine. In fact, traditional Italian biscotti is made with dunking in mind. The density of the cookie and the sweetness and richness of espresso are a match made in Italian heaven.
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs (or 2 large eggs)
2 tsp good vanilla extract
Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or baking silicone mats.
Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
Beat butter in an electric mixer on medium high speed until creamy, about 2 minutes.
Add the sugar and mix on high speed until mixture is fluffy, about 2 more minutes.
Scrape down bowl and add eggs, one at a time. Add in vanilla.
Turn off the mixer and, working in batches, add in the flour cocoa mixture. Mixing and scraping down the bowl in between. Mix until the dough just comes together in a bowl and there are no flour streaks throughout the dough.
Take the bowl out from the electric mixer and fold in the chopped chocolate chunks.
Divide the dough in half and put one half on each baking sheet lined with parchment. Shape each half into a long log shape, about 12 inches in length. I did longer oval shapes with my dough - you can make the width of the dough as short or as long as you wish. Just be sure you have around 12” of dough lengthwise.
Bake 30-40 minutes until the tops of the logs are firm to the touch and a few cracks begin to peek through. Cool on a wire rack for about 8 minutes and then cut (while still warm!) into wide slices, lengthwise. Use a sharp knife and press down confidently with downward strokes. Arrange the cookies standing up on the baking sheet, spacing them out as you stand them up, to allow them to begin drying out when you put them back in the oven.
Lower oven temperature to 300°F (148°C). Bake the cookies another 10 minutes or so, until the texture becomes almost crumbly.
Once out of the oven, transfer the biscotti to a wire rack to cool completely. Feel free to top the cookies with melted chocolate! If topping with melted chocolate, do so only when the biscotti have completely cooled. They are, of course, delicious as is, dipped in a fresh cup of espresso, or even dunked in sweet Italian dessert wine - yum! Enjoy.
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