Tuesday, July 3, 2012

TWD Hazelnut Biscotti

I had mixed feelings about making the Hazelnut Biscotti.  While I adore hazelnuts, I am not a big biscotti fan. I don't drink coffee which biscotti is traditionally dipped in, and on it's own, it's too dry to be considered a a cookie.  I became more enthused about making the biscotti when I heard some other bakers mention that they were going to add chocolate.  As we all know chocolate and hazelnuts are a match made in heaven so I decided I was motivated enough to try this.  I also thought dried cherries would be yummy but I didn't want to stray too far from the recipe (AKA I didn't want to go to the store).

Here are my notes on the recipe.  You are supposed to blanch the hazelnuts in baking soda water and the skins are supposed to just slip off when  you run them under cold water.  Well some of the skins were slipping off when they were boiling so I supposed they were done.  I supposed wrong.  It took a bit of effort to get the skins off and ended up being the only difficult part of the recipe.

In addition to adding chocolate chips, I also used hazelnut extract instead of the hazelnut liquor.  Oh, and I cut the recipe in half because I didn't want a lot of biscotti hanging around the house.

The verdict:  Since I don't drink coffee I decided to go for broke and whip up some Ghiradelli hazelnut hot chocolate to dunk it into.  I really liked it.  I probably won't make it again because I just not a big biscotti fan but I enjoyed eating it.  This is probably the best biscotti I have eaten.  In retrospect I think the dried cherries would have been yummy but they would have made the biscotti less traditional (the chocolate chips were already stretching it).  I might have liked it more but it wouldn't be real biscotti.  If you like biscotti I would give it a try.  Find the recipe over at Homemade and Wholesome or at Baking and Boys.  If you are finding that a lot of TWD recipes are appealing to you check out Baking with Julia.


9 comments:

  1. a little bit of chocolate in these biscotti sounds great! wish i'd done that, too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They look lovely!! I really love biscotti, and found this recipe to be delicious! I don’t usually dunk, but I love them with my tea!

    ReplyDelete
  3. The first two or three (or maybe more?!) I had them the "original crunchy way" - then I decided to dunk them into coffee and I was in...heaven!
    Your picture is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ein herzliches "Hallo" aus dem Norden Deutschlands, thanks for visiting my blog. Great picture!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Allison, I like the way you shot the biscotti in the bowl with the red napkin! Your hot chocolate sounds divine!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have the same opinion of biscotti, but was pleasantly surprised how tasty these were :) Yours look lovely!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm not a biscotti fan either. Love the photo!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Really lovely photo!
    Chocolate and cherries would have been really nice.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love your photo. Your biscotti looks perfect! I can imagine how wonderful it tasted with the hot chocolate and I think I will give it a try instead of coffee next time.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...