2 TONED BISCOTTI…COFFEE & CHOCOLATE!
Both mine always take some cookies for their class teacher, & a few others. The daughter voluntarily makes about a dozen cards, while the son struggles to make 1! She is like a card factory in herself, & in the span of an hour turns out about a dozen well made, similar looking cards, with intricate art-work; the writing looks like it’s been printed. Trying to desperately keep pace, the little fellow somehow manages to almost complete his one card, with writing like spiders taking a walk, but is amazingly creative in his own way!! (Didn’t manage to take pictures of the cards though….). My job is to take orders for cookies from the kids. It’s usually chocolate-chip cookies or shortbread. This year I had a bee in my bonnet to make biscotti. I was suffering serious ‘biscotti making withdrawal symptoms’…& so got online to look for a new chocolate biscotti. I found this neat recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti on Food Network…the head said YES, but the silly heart pushed for more. 
COFFEE CHOCOLATE BISCOTTI as adapted from Food Network
Ingredients:
For Chocolate portion:
Flour – 2 cups all-purpose
Cocoa powder – 1/2 cup unsweetened
Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
Unsalted butter – 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons), softened
Granulated sugar – 1 cup
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
Eggs – 2 large
For coffee portion:
Flour – 2 1/4 cups all-purpose
Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
Unsalted butter – 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons), softened
Granulated sugar – 1 cup
Eggs – 2 large
Instant Coffee- 2 tbsps (I used 1; but should have used 2)
Coffee extract – 1 tsp (optional)
Mini chocolate chips – 1/2 cup
2 tablespoon vanilla sugar (or confectioners’ sugar)
Method:
For the CHOCOLATE portion:
- In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
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In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
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Add eggs and beat until combined well.
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Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff dough.
For the COFFEE portion:
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In a bowl whisk together flour, coffee powder, baking soda, and salt.
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In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
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Add eggs and beat until combined well.
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Stir in flour mixture & chocolate chips to form a stiff dough.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter and flour 2 large baking sheets/or line with parchment.
To finish:
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Divide each dough into 4.
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On prepared baking sheet with floured hands, form 8 long ropes 12″ X 1″ & join together to form a half chocolate/half coffee slightly flattened logs, each 12 inches long and 2 inches wide; 2 logs on each sheet. You should a total of 4 logs. I f you like, you can twist 1 or 2 to give some other effect too.
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Sprinkle with vanilla sugar. (you can use confectioners sugar instead).
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Bake logs 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch. Cool biscotti on baking sheet 5 minutes.
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On a cutting board, with a sharp knife, cut biscotti diagonally into 3/4-inch slices. Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Cool biscotti on a rack.
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Biscotti keep in airtight containers 1 week and , frozen, 1 month.
Am sending this off to Ben’s @ What’s Cookin US as the ‘sweet’ entry for his ‘I Love Baking’ event.
Am sending this off to Ben’s @ 
Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
26 Comments
A_and_N
I am going to copy this recipe and try this on Monday for sure. I have a biscotti making mania seeping into my veins NOW!
Divya Vikram
Cute looking biscottis!
Ivy
My daughter is just like your daughter and makes the most amazing cards. You are so creative Deeba and you biscotti look perfect.
Bharti
Love the two tones! Good idea. Your kids must be the teachers’ pets!
And yes, my daughter and son are exactly the same as yours. She makes a card a minute to the point where you just don’t know what to do with them anymore. The little fella just makes squiggles- he is only 3 but I still don’t see him turning in to a card factory any time soon 😉
noble pig
I’m sure the teacher’s loved them! Beautiful..and the cards too…
Susan from Food Blogga
What a lovely tradition to show teachers your appreciation. I’m sure your kids’ teachers are extra happy that their students’ mother is you– everyone’s favorite passionate baker. 🙂
Manggy
Aah, it’s nice to hear the knife worked well! They look perfect Deeba! I’m not too fond of hard pastries so I haven’t found the enthusiasm to make biscotti but those do look very pretty! 🙂
Astra Libris
Oh my goodness, coffee and chocolate is the height of deliciousness… Your biscotti are gorgeous! Your children and their teachers are so fortunate to receive gifts from such a talented baker!
Proud Italian Cook
The apple dosen’t fall far from the tree! Your kids are talented and creative just like you.
You’re amazing deeba!
Purnima
Deeba,aren’t the kids teachers lucky?Not only home-made art,they also recieve home-bakes! The biscotti looks scrumptious!tks 4 sharing.
Pearlsofeast
Deeba,I am sure the teachers must have had great time munching ur biscotti’s.I am a big fan of these crusty ones.Lovely set up and really nice presentation.Will love to see your daughter’s creativity.
Nags
they look lovely! gosh you are so talented!
Aparna
The couple of times I tried biscotti, they crumbled! That’s when I understood the meaning of”that’s the way the cookie crumbles:!!
Maybe I need a new knife.:)
Núria
Hola Deeba! Wow what a spread! I bet the teachers were more than happy! This is a great tradition… we don’t have anything like it here.
Clumbsy Cookie
Lucky teachers!!!
Very nice to do a marbled biscotti! I loved this idea! Perfect for when you don’t know wich flavour to do! Just make the 2, lol! Really cool!
Cakespy
How wonderful!! It’s gorgeous–what an awesome gift too!
Ben
I was just thinking I need a biscoti recipe because I am in the mood of baking something sweet tonight. Thanks a lot for this delicious recipe 🙂
Lori Lynn
Sounds terrific. I’m glad you posted that photo of the dough, I was wondering how you do that.
Bellini Valli
We need to show our appreciation more for our kids hardworking teachers Deeba. I’m sure they appreciated the biscotti very much…I know I would!!!!
Tartelette
They look and sound delicious! I bet your kids’ teachers were thrilled with them!
Marija
WOW! These are cute!
Alexa
Biscotti are my favorite. This recipe looks playful and tasty. I love the presentation. Your kids’ teachers are lucky. I like this Teacher’s Appreciation Day idea. Makes sense to me. Teaching is such a hard job… you need to know people appreciate your dedication. This is a lovely way to say “thank you”.
mimi
wowzers!! i love biscotti, and i’ve been craving to make them again recently. these look so gorgeous in the two colors, and i bet they tasted amazing!
Gloria (Canela)
Really love yours biscotti!!! are amazing!Gloria
familiabencomo
Gorgeous! I know the teachers loved their special gifts. My goodness, if I made these, then I would have to give them all away because I can totally see myself sitting down with a big glass of milk & eating half a dozen in one sitting.
Tanti baci, bella,
Amy
Jeanne
Oh that looks fantastic! Wish I were a teacher… And I love the quote about temptation today too 🙂