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.