Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

These delicious biscotti are one of my favorite ways to start the day. They are only slightly chocolatey with the flavor of hazelnut taking center stage. Pair these with a strong cup off coffee and you are good to go. If you can bear to part with them, they are a great option for packaging up in pretty tins to give away as gifts.

This is not a difficult recipe, but it does take some time. It is only hands on here and there, but there's a lot of time spent waiting, so make these on a morning when you will be around the house for a little while. This is another recipe from my favorite out-of-print (but still available at Amazon) cookbook The Hay Day Country Cookbook.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

• 1 1/3 cups whole hazelnuts (skins on or blanched)

• 8 tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

• 3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/8 tsp salt

1. If you have skin-on hazelnuts, toast them in a 375 F oven for about 8 minutes. (Skip to step 2 if you have blanched hazelnuts). Immediately remove them to a clean kitchen towel and rub furiously to remove as much of the skins as possible. Don't fret if they don't all come off. They never do. Put oven at 325 F. Skip to step 3.
2. If you have blanched hazelnuts, toast them at 325 F until lightly browned and fragrant, about 8 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, i a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and mix until smooth.
4. In another mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add this to the creamed mixture, and blend on low speed just until a stiff dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
5. Coarsely chop half of the toasted nuts, and stir both the chopped and the whole nuts into the dough. Divide the dough in half and using lightly floured hands, form each half into a 12 x 3-inch flattened log. Place the logs, spaced at least 2 inches apart, on a large ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 325 F until firm, lightly browned and cracked on top, 25 to 30 minutes.
6. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 300 F. Allow the logs to cool on the sheet for 10 minutes. Then loosen them with a large flat spatula and transfer them to a cutting board. Using a thin sharp knife, cut them into 1/2-inch thick slices. Return the slices to the baking sheet, cut sides up, and return the baking sheet to the oven. Bake, rotating the pan once, until the biscotti are firm and dry throughout, 20-35 minutes. (They will crisp up as they cool.)
7. Allow biscotti to cool completely on the baking sheet for at least 30 minutes. Then transfer them to jar or tin for storage. Makes about 48 biscotti.