I’ve been wanting to make chocolate biscotti for a while now. I’ve tried several different recipes, and I’ve finally landed on this one – it’s an adjusted version of these almond-anise biscotti, which are my favorite. One of the things I love about them is the heady aroma of anise, so I knew I’d need to include anise in these as well. When I made a chocolate version with almonds but no anise, Millie said, “It’s giving brownie“, which is a young person’s way of saying they taste like brownies. Haha. Now you know some new slang. I had to agree with her that they did kind of taste like brownies, so I put the anise back in, and also added some orange zest for a citrus kick. When Millie tasted one of those, she said, “It’s giving Nutella“! You know, the chocolate hazelnut combo? Well, I think they are giving deliciousness. I hope you agree.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

• 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons (40 grams) good quality cocoa (high fat if possible)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• scant 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups  + 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• zest from one orange – about one tablespoon
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground anise seed (use a mortar and pestle)
• 1 cup toasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli makes a nice mini chip)

1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the sugar and the melted butter. Stir in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, orange zest, and ground anise seed.
4. Add the flour/cocoa mixture to the wet ingredients and stir to mix, until you see no more flour.
5. Stir in the chopped hazelnuts and mini chocolate chips.
6. Let the dough rest for about 15 minutes, then divide in half and form into two long logs on the parchment lined baking sheet. I do this by spooning dollops of dough in two lines, and then shaping with my hands. The logs should run the length of the baking sheet, and should be about 1 inch tall and 2 inches wide. Try to have about 4 inches of space between the logs.
7. Chill the logs in the fridge for about half an hour.
8. Preheat oven to 350°.
9. Bake logs in preheated 350° oven on the middle rack for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let logs cool on the pan on a cooling rack for 25 minutes. Leave the oven on!!!
10. After the 25 minutes of cooling time, carefully remove the logs from the parchment paper onto a cutting board. Discard the parchment paper. With a sharp serrated knife (I like to use a bread knife), cut the logs into 1/2″ slices using a firm, consistent sawing motion. With the other hand, hold the log in place as close as you safely can to the cut to keep the log from falling apart. Place the slices cut side down on the baking sheet (do this one log at a time) and bake for 12 minutes. (While they are baking, you can go ahead and slice the next log and put the slices on a second baking sheet.) When the 12 minutes are up, take the baking sheet out and carefully flip the slices over and put back in the oven for another 8 minutes. When they are done baking, remove from oven and place biscotti directly on a cooling rack. Now you can bake the second batch in the same way.*
11. Once cookies are completely cool, store them in an airtight container. These biscotti are so much better after a day or two, I promise you, so be patient! And if stored properly, they stay crunchy and delicious for at least a month, and the flavor just keeps improving. Makes approximately 50 biscotti**. Enjoy!

This 8-cup Ball jar makes a nice air-tight cookie jar.

Notes:

*The end pieces do not get twice baked. Those are set aside as a special treat :).

**One of the things I love about this recipe is that it is very easy to make a smaller batch. You can easily make 1/3 of a batch for a craving, or 2/3 of a batch if you’d like extras to have around for a while, which is what I did this last time, so I was able to fit all the cut biscotti on one baking sheet. Nice. Pretty much all the ingredient amounts are easily divisible by 3. A tablespoon equals three teaspoons by the way, but you probably already knew that. When I’m making these for holiday gifts, I make the whole recipe, but the smaller batches are quicker and more manageable.

Here are a few photos of the process:

Nice even logs (this is just two thirds of the recipe because I didn’t want to make the whole thing)

After baking for 30 minutes.

Nice even slices.

I’m surprised one of the end pieces is still sitting around!

Ready to go in for a second bake. This is all the cookies from 2/3 of the recipe (both logs). Now you know why you’d need to do two trays for the full recipe.

Cooling. Remember, they are better after a couple of days!

Coffee break!