Hazelnut, chocolate and orange biscotti

Biscottis are Italian oblong-shaped almond biscuits made long and crunchy, best dunked into coffee.

I attribute my craze of biscotti to MC, who got me started on baking biscottis. Because as he says, once you start munching on them, you find that you won't be able to stop because it is THAT addictive.

So far, I've been baking biscottis almost every other day (third time and counting) and each time I find my biscottis improving. Being the experimental baker that I am, I'm substituting the ingredients with whatever I can source in the pantry and I find that the best concoction consists of hazelnuts, chocolate with a dollop of orange flavouring from the orange peel. 

The recipe that I used is an adaptation from MC's biscotti recipe.

Ingredients: (Yields about 30 biscottis depending on how you cut them up)

2 cups all-purpose flour 

3/4 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp orange zest

1 cup hazelnuts, lightly roasted

A few pieces of cooking chocolate chopped in not too small pieces (I used bitter chocolate)

1/2 cup cranberries (optional - they end up tasting a little like gummy bears in the biscotti which I thought didn't taste too right)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, ground cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl of an electric mixer and mix them briefly to combine.

3. Whisk the eggs, oil, vanilla essence and orange zest in a separate bowl.

4. Add the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Beat on medium speed until combined. This will make a dry, stiff dough.

5. Stir in the chocolate, hazelnuts and cranberries.

6. Divide the dough in half and transfer to baking sheet. Form 2 logs into the length of the baking sheet and flatten to about a 2inch strip. Make sure there is space between the logs because the biscotti will expand a little. Bake till almost firm to the touch, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.

7. Reduce oven to 150C. Move the cooled logs to a cutting board. Use a serrated knife to cut 3/4inch thick strips. It's better if the strips are even thinner.

8. Place the biscotti slices on baking sheet, with the cut side down. Bake till firm to touch and completely dry, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and turn them onto the other cut side, bake another 10 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.