Chocolate biscotti

Instructions

1. Step 1

   Preheat the oven to 175°C, and at the same time toast 120 g hazelnuts on a tray for about ten minutes, then rub off most of their skins with a clean towel. Toasted hazelnuts taste nutty and sweet and lose the raw, astringent edge. They're ready when the skins crack and flake off and the nuts turn golden brown.

   Mark step 1 as done

2. Step 2

   Dissolve 4 g instant coffee in 5 g vanilla extract, then beat 85 g softened unsalted butter with 200 g granulated sugar for about three minutes and add 150 g eggs one at a time along with the coffee mixture. The coffee doesn't make the biscotti bitter; it makes the cocoa flavor deeper and rounder. The mixture is ready when it's smooth, lightly fluffy and an even color.

   Suggested time: about 3 minutes.

   Mark step 2 as done

3. Step 3

   Sift 250 g all-purpose flour, 40 g cocoa powder, 3 g baking soda and 2 g salt together over the butter mixture and mix on low speed with the paddle. Cocoa absorbs a lot of moisture, so sifting it evenly keeps the dough from clumping and the cookies from having dry patches. The dough is ready when it's an even dark brown and comes together into a soft mass.

   Mark step 3 as done

4. Step 4

   Halve the cooled hazelnuts, add them to the bowl with 100 g chocolate chips and knead them in by hand so they're spread throughout the dough. Evenly distributed nuts and chocolate give every slice its share of nuttiness and bittersweet flavor. You've mixed enough when a cut through the dough shows nuts and chocolate scattered evenly.

   Mark step 4 as done

5. Step 5

   Divide the dough into two equal parts, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and shape each into a flat log about twenty-eight centimeters long and seven centimeters wide, at least ten centimeters apart. The dough spreads in the oven, so it needs room. The logs are ready when they're evenly thick from end to end with nicely rounded edges.

   Mark step 5 as done

6. Step 6

   Bake at 175°C for 30 to 35 minutes. Because the dough is so dark, check doneness by touch rather than by color. The logs are ready when the tops have cracked slightly, the outside has firmed up and the center springs back when pressed rather than sinking.

   Bake at 175°C for about 30 to 35 minutes.

   Mark step 6 as done

7. Step 7

   Let the logs sit on a rack for about twenty minutes and lower the oven to 150°C, then move them to a cutting board and slice them on the diagonal into bars almost two centimeters thick with a serrated knife. Resting lets the chocolate chips set so they don't smear when you cut. The bars are ready when the edges are square and the chocolate on the cut sides looks sharp.

   Suggested time: about 20 minutes.

   Mark step 7 as done

8. Step 8

   Stand the bars upright on the tray, slightly apart, and bake at 150°C for another 20 to 25 minutes, so there's no need to flip them. Hot air circulating around each bar dries both cut sides evenly. The biscotti are finished when the surface is dry and no longer feels damp, and they turn crisp and hard after cooling on a rack.

   Bake at 150°C for about 20 to 25 minutes.

   Mark step 8 as done