“So much chocolate, so little time.”
Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti … chocolate yet again because it was a hurried baking batch. Same story, different biscotti. With the better half set to travel and a last minute change in plans, I had little to almost no time to bake. I hurriedly threw these together this morning adapted from a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. One stop over at Deb’s blog, or leafing through her cookbook, leaves you inspired to hit baking mode.
For me chocolate is one of the easiest and most forgiving mediums to bake with. With my hashtag #makehalfyourgrainswhole, I can blindly experiment, knowing in the end we’ll have something edible, if not delicious. Going the whole food way has been possibly one of the most satisfying journeys of my life, if not the most exciting. Makes me want to constantly experiment, try new things. That makes life a lot less mundane too. This biscotti did just that giving me room to change things around.
Hazelnuts out. Almonds in. I added butter since I often find biscotti a little ‘skinny’ or dry. Personal choice definitely but a delicious end nevertheless. I also added dark couverture chocolate just because I like cookies that have deep, chocolaty flavour. Cocoa powder often is not enough to get you the indulgent edge. Since I threw these together with limited time on hand, I cut the slices quite thick. Taking advice from my chef friend Ruchira, next time I will freeze them a bit to try and get thinner biscotti. That is my dream and hopefully I get there one day. Biscotti with plain flour behaves a lot easier for thin slices, is also easier to handle. Thick chunky biscotti is a healthy trade off I guess!!
Recipe: Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti 
Summary: Comfort cookies with deep chocolaty flavour, and toasted almonds just hitting the right notes. Wholegrain Dark Chocolate Almond Biscotti might just be the answer for comfort food; never mind what the question is!!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 75g almonds, toasted, roughly chopped
- 50g unsalted butter
- 75g dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp espresso powder
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g wholewheat flour
- 60g all purpose flour
- 40g almond meal
- 30g good quality cocoa powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 200g brown sugar
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C. Line a heavy baking tray with parchment.
- Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave, 1 min. Stir until smooth, then stir in espresso powder.
- In a large bowl stir together wholewheat flour, plain flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and chopped almonds.
- Place the egg and vanilla extract in bowl of stand mixer. Whisk on high speed for 15 seconds, then add melted chocolate mix and stir on low speed for 15 seconds to combine.
- Add the dry mix and run mixer for 20-30 seconds on slow speed to combine. Don’t over work.
- Turn out onto work surface and divide into 2. Form into 2 long flat logs about 8-10″ long {or as desired}
- Transfer to prepared baking sheet, brush gently with water, and sprinkle over with brown sugar.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm to touch.
- Remove tray from oven, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, then slice at an angle as thin as you like with a good sharp serrated knife.
- Reduce oven temperature to 150C. Return the sliced cookies back to the tray, cut side down {and up of course!} and bake for a further 20-25 minutes until crisp and dry.
- Cool completely on racks before storing.
Don’t miss a post 
Also find me on The Rabid Baker, The Times of India
