Milk Chocolate Biscotti
Milk Chocolate Biscotti
When I was a kid, I asked my grandmother why she made a certain stuffed bread thing only at Eastertime. It was really good and we all looked forward to it, so why not, I asked, make it at other times of the year?
Well, she looked at me as though I had asked her to break dance on the kitchen floor. "This bread is
only for Easter!"
That was it. No explanation, no discussion. So I learned that sometimes you make things just one time of year; and it's ironclad and instinctive -- maybe it's for tradition, maybe it's to build anticipation, or to make it special and, without realizing it, to make certain times of the year connect to certain types of food as to create stronger memories. I am sure you can smell special foods you loved from your childhood, even right this minute, even better than you can describe them in words. Smells and tastes are like that; they are, literally, memories that last stronger, better and longer. So maybe that's what my grandmother knew.
With that context, here is a cookie I make ONLY at Christmas. I am not a big baker. I might make an apple cake or spice cake in the fall, and maybe cookies a couple times a year. But this one I make, usually a double batch, every Christmas, and they are gone by shortly after Epiphany, even if I send a few to friends.
I prefer them with strong black coffee, quickly dunked -- coffee and chocolate are great together. But they go with milk or are good plain, too; some people like to dunk them in red wine. Anyway, these are hard, not soft, biscotti, so be advised.
This recipe is actually not a family recipe, but one I found and thought looked good, and I was right. It is from Maida Heatter's famous cookie cookbook from 20 years ago. The work is on the front end, but you bake them twice (once as a log, then cut, then a second time), so you need to be around (to switch them on the racks in the oven, cut them, put them back in, and switch them again), takes a little time, but it's worth it.
Barbara's Milk Chocolate Biscotti
Ingredients:
7 ounces whole almonds (Pal's note: recipe calls for these to be blanched/skinned. I never have and they turn out fine. But roasting them, as the recipe calls for, makes them better.)
7 ounces milk chocolate bar (Pal's note: I've tended to use Hershey's Symphony bar, but can use anything you like; note that this recipe is from the days when these big bars were 7 oz.; now they are 5 something oz. Note this when purchasing ingredients.)
1 3/4 cups sifted unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Pal's note: original recipe calls for Dutch-process cocoa; I've used regular Hershey's cocoa, right out of those little brown cans)
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions:
Toast the almonds in a shallow pan in a preheated 350- degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly colored, shaking the pan once or twice. You can tell when they are done by the strong smell of toasted almonds when you open the oven door. Set aside to cool.
Cut or break the chocolate into small pieces and place it in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade. Let stand.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa and sugar. Add about 1 cup of the flour mixture to the chocolate. Process for about 30 seconds, or until the chocolate is fine and powdery. (Pal's note: It's important to sift; separates the particles and makes the cookies lighter and better.)
In a large bowl, mix together the processed ingredients with the remaining sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the almonds. (Pal's note: I normally treat baking, unlike cooking, as a chemistry experiment; I'm careful with measurements and changing steps or ingredients, because changes can throw off the chemistry. But at this step, I admit to adding a half cup or cup of Nestle's morsel/semi-sweet chocolate chips. I like chocolate and it has seemed to turn out okay. You don't need to; I don't always; the recipe doesn't say to; but you can.)
In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla just to mix. With a large rubber or wooden spatula stir the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. You may think there is not enough liquid, but there is.
Now place two 20-inch lengths of plastic wrap on the work surface.
To shape two loaves, spoon a strip of the dough down the middle of each piece of plastic wrap. Each strip should be 13 to 14 inches long. Flatten the tops. Lift the two long sides of the plastic wrap (hold them together as close as hands, press on the plastic wrap to smooth the dough and shape it into an even strip 14 to 15 inches long, 2 1/2 to 3 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick (no thicker), with squared ends. If the strips of dough are thicker than they should be, the baked strips will not slice neatly. Transfer to a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for about 2 hours (or as much longer as you wish), until firm enough to retain the log shape when the plastic wrap is removed.
To bake, adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line two large cookie sheets with baking parchment or aluminum foil, shiny-side up. To transfer the frozen dough to the sheets (the dough may still be a bit sticky; if so, it is okay ), open the two long sides of plastic wrap on top of one strip of dough and turn the dough upside down on the lined sheet, placing it diagonally on the sheet. Slowly peel off the plastic wrap. Repeat with the second strip and the second sheet.
Bake the strips in the preheated oven for 1 hour, reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during baking to ensure even baking. During baking the strips will spread out (7 to 8 inches wide).
After 1 hour of baking, reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees and remove the sheets from the oven. Immediately, with a wide metal spatula, release a strip from the parchment or foil and place it on a board. Repeat with the second strip. Use a pot holder or a folded towel to hold one of the hot strips in place, and use a serrated French bread knife to cut the strip crosswise into slices 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide. Repeat with the second strip. Place the slices, standing upright, on unlined cookie sheets with a little space between them. Return to oven to bake at 275 degrees for 40 minutes, reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during baking.
Let cool and store in an airtight container.
Per cookie: 80 calories, 2 gm protein, 11 gm carbohydrates, 4 gm fat, 17 mg cholesterol, 1 gm saturated fat, 41 mg sodium
After mixing and being shaped, the dough has to spend about 2 hours in the freezer before it is baked (it can stay longer). There are two bakings, which will total about 1 hour and 40 minutes.
