Chocolate Dipped Almond Biscotti - Holiday Bake Along
December 20th, 2006 by Tink Boord-Dill
The joy of creation can result from doing beautiful needlework, creating a lovely quilt or simply baking and cooking delicious treats for your loved ones!
Professionals from the Quilting and Needlework Industries have joined together to share their holiday memories, a glimpse into their businesses, and MANY irresistible recipes!
Please visit ILoveToBake.com and TheArmchairChef.com for more fabulous holiday creations!
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Needlework and Quilting Pros |
| ILoveToBakeCookies.com CHOCOLATE DIPPED ALMOND BISCOTTI |
| For the past 20 years, my best friends and I have gotten together during the first full weekend in December for our annual Great Cookie Bake! For 3 days solid, we eat, talk, laugh, and of course, BAKE *enormous* amounts of cookies. We bake so many cookies, in fact, that we now have a database containing our recipe ingredients and number of batches baked. We’re quite productive, considering there are only 4 of us baking! (To give you an idea, for the 2005 bake, we made 26 varieties, which required about 13 lbs. butter, 5 dozen eggs, and about 20 lbs. of flour!) About a month before the Bake, we get together and decide which cookies we feel like baking this time around, who will be bringing how much of what ingredients. Then we converge on the host’s house at the appointed time and the Games begin! For many years, we rotated between our three homes…then one of our group bought a new house with 2 wall ovens… talk about heaven for cookie baking! We have a great time getting together; the baking part is really just an excuse to do it! We give most of the finished product away as gifts.
There are several types we simply *must* make every year, as people are disappointed if we don’t! We ALWAYS make a biscotti that gets rave reviews: Chocolate-Dipped Almond Biscotti! |
| Ingredients |
| Biscotti:3/4 cup butter, softened 3/4 cup sugar 4 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 2 teaspoons almond extract 3-3/4 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons lemon zest 2 teaspoons orange zest 1 cup almonds, toasted and finely chopped |
| Chocolate Dip:2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 2 tablespoons shortening finely chopped nuts of your choice for garnish |
| Step by Step |
| Preheat oven to 350 F Biscotti: 1) Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 2) In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar, 3) Add eggs, vanilla, almond extract, lemon and orange zests and beat until mixture is well-combined (It will be soupy and a bit lumpy) 4) Add half of the flour mixture, and beat until it is just combined. 5) Use a wooden spoon to stir in the rest of the flour mixture and the almonds. 6) Shape the dough into 2: 15″ X 3-1/2″ X 1/2″ logs. Place them on a cookie sheet about 3″ apart. 7) Bake logs for 32 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool for 2 hours.9) Using a long serrated knife, slice the logs diagonally into 1/2″ slices. 10) Arrange cut side down on a baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 7 minutes. 11) Flip the biscotti over and bake for another 5 minutes more. 12) Cool completely on a wire rack. |
| Make chocolate dip: 1) Melt together chocolate chips and shortening in microwave. 2) Dip biscotti in chocolate mixture and sprinkle with finely chopped nuts of your choice. 3) Store in an airtight container away from heat. |
| TW Designworks |
| TW Designworks: Specializing in fantasy-inspired counted cross stitch designs, sold through fine needlework retailers and via PatternsOnLine.com. Also now offering fine art prints and original artwork by Teresa Wentzler, sold consumer-direct via the TW Designworks website. Sign up for the TW Art Newsletter to stay updated about what’s new! Visit Artistic License, my blog, for glimpses into the life of the artist/designer. And visit the Teresa Wentzler Bulletin Board to network with other needlework enthusiasts. Stay tuned for some new developments as TW Designworks continues to grow! http://www.twdesignworks.com/ |