I love biscotti, especially this biscotti. They sell them all over New York, but I’m always too cheap to buy it. So when my aunt gave me the recipe from one of the Lottie’s Kitchen cookbooks, I hung it up on the fridge, ready to bake it. Well, it took a few months to finally get started. Biscotti baking is a whole day activity, really. Especially if you only have two available baking sheets. Make sure you have enough time to make the dough, bake it off once, then cut them and bake them in batches. It took me about five hours, including clean up (well, I was working on a few other things at the same time and don’t have a dishwasher).

Ingredients:

• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups almonds, roasted (I used slivered) – divided
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups chocolate chips (make sure they’re pareve!)
• 5 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. If you didn’t do so already, roast the almonds.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well.

3. Place 1 cup of the dry mixture into a food processor along with 1 cup of almonds. Process until you get a fine powder.

4. Pour into stand mixer, along with the rest of the dry ingredients.

5. Add chips and almonds, stir with paddle.

6. In small bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla. Add to dry mixture. Mix until it holds together – this takes about 20 seconds.

7. Roll the dough into two logs with wet hands (this is important – the dough is very sticky!) and place on parchment lined baking sheets. Make sure they’re very far apart, even on different baking sheets. Mine joined in the oven.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes – I actually baked them for closer to 40, but that might just be my oven. You know they’re ready if they sounds hollow when tapped.

9. Let cool almost completely – if not, the chocolate chips will get everywhere while cutting and your biscotti will look very ugly. It’s also much easier to handle when cool.

11. Bake at 275 degrees for 25 minutes – I baked them for 30 – flipping them over halfway through.

* Everyone likes their biscotti cut differently – I like mine thin, and know that already, so all mine are thin. But you can also decide to cut the loaf diagonally or straight. If you have skinny loaves, cutting diagonally will yield some longer cookies. You’ll also have different lengths, though. With loaves as fat as these, cutting them straight does the trick. This way the individual biscotti are uniform…I got 50 from one loaf doing it this way (the two ends kinda crumble as you cut them – save those and add them to vanilla ice cream, or munch on them as you’re cutting). Good thing they last forever (3 months in an air tight container, even longer in the freezer).

My favorite way to eat biscotti is dipping it in coffee. Mmm, what an easy dessert to impress my company with – take it out of the freezer and put it on a plate.