chocolate & almond biscotti

I've been trying to teach J to bake (at his insistence) but my patience is starting to wear thin; allow me to elaborate.

Having decided to do some baking on a Sunday afternoon (in particular Donna Hay's Chocolate & Almond Biscotti recipe), I announced that we could probably substitute the almonds with hazelnuts which I already had at home but no, J insists that each and every recipe needs to be followed exactly and at the base of it, he didn't like hazelnuts but preferred almonds. Argh...so out we went to buy a small packet of blanched almonds which we needed for the recipe. Personally, I think hazelnuts would've worked out just fine.

Back at home, I ask him to measure out on the dry ingredients so I could mix them together. I'd quickly read through the ingredients list so had an idea of roughly how much everything was needed. Halfway through the measuring (as I was helping out), I ask him how much sugar was needed to reconfirm, turns out he was looking at the ingredients list for another recipe altogether...argh!!

And well, after that, he decided he was bored so I was left to do the rest. It probably worked out better that way.

The biscotti logs before they went into the oven. Tip: Make the rolls a bit longer and thinner so you have smaller slices of biscotti at the end. Mine ended up a little big.

Sliced biscotti before their second baking. The trick here is to use a really sharp knife. I had my Wustof Knife from LCB :D
The final product!

I actually tasted the biscotti after their first and second bakings. After the first baking, the biscotti are just crisp around the edges and slightly soft on the inside (and actually tasted rather nice even though they weren't quite completed). After the second baking, they become nice and crisp like they should be; great for having with tea and coffee! I'm keen to experience with pistachios now and I really need to find another brand of baking cocoa, Nestle Cocoa just isn't doing it for me. Whilst the biscotti tasted great, there really wasn't much of a chocolate taste to them!

Might I suggest that if you are keen to make biscotti, make sure you have an afternoon free to sit by the oven and watch these as they bake. Once they go in for their second baking, it's only a matter of minutes before they become really crisp (The Donna Hay recipe had recommend up to 20 minutes but I would've taken about half of this).