Barbara's Milk Chocolate Biscotti

---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: Barbara's Milk Chocolate Biscotti
Categories: Italian, Biscotti
Yield: 6 servings

1 7 ozs who blanched almonds
--- skinned
7 oz Milk chocolate
(heatter uses hershey's
-symphonybar)
1 3/4 c Sifted unbleached flour
1 ts Baking soda
1/8 ts Salt
1/3 c Unsweetened cocoa powder
(heatter uses dutch-process
-cocoa)
1 c Granulated sugar
4 lg Eggs
1 ts Vanilla extract

Recipe by: Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies
Toast the almonds in a shallow pan in a preheated 350-
degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly colored,
shaking the pan once or twice. You can tell when they are
done by the strong smell of toasted almonds when you open
the oven door. Set asid e to cool.

Cut or break the chocolate into small pieces and place it
in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal
chopping blade. Let stand.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa and
sugar. Add about 1 cup of the flour mixture to the
chocolate. Process for about 30 seconds, or until the
chocolate is fine and powdery.

In a large bowl, mix together the processed ingredients
with the remaining sifted dry ingredients. Stir in the
almonds.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the vanilla just to
mix. With a large rubber or wooden spatula stir the egg
mixture into the dry ingredients. You may think there is

Now place two 20-inch lengths of plastic wrap on the work
surface.

To shape two loaves, spoon a strip of the dough down the
middle of each piece of plastic wrap. Each strip should be
13 to 14 inches long. Flatten the tops. Lift the two long
sides of the plastic wrap (hold them together as close as
hands, press on the plastic wrap to smooth the dough and
shape it into an even strip 14 to 15 inches long, 2 1/2 to
3 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick (no thicker), with
squared ends. If the strips of dough are t hicker than they
should be, the baked strips will not slice neatly.

Transfer to a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for
about 2 hours (or as much longer as you wish), until firm
enough to retain the log shape when the plastic wrap is
removed.

To bake, adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line two large cookie sheets
with baking parchment or aluminum foil, shiny-side up.

To transfer the frozen dough to the sheets (the dough may
still be a bit sticky; if so, it is okay ), open the two
long sides of plastic wrap on top of one strip of dough
and turn the dough upside down on the lined sheet, placing
it diagonally on the sheet. Slowly peel off the plastic
wrap. Repeat with the second strip and the second sheet.

Bake the strips in the preheated oven for 1 hour, reversing
the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during
baking to ensure even baking. During baking the strips will
spread out (7 to 8 inches wide).

After 1 hour of baking, reduce the oven temperature to 275
degrees and remove the sheets from the oven. Immediately,
with a wide metal spatula, release a strip from the
parchment or foil and place it on a board. Repeat with the
second strip.

Use a pot holder or a folded towel to hold one of the hot
strips in place, and use a serrated French bread knife to
cut the strip crosswise into slices 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide.

Repeat with the second strip. Place the slices, standing
upright, on unlined cookie sheets with a little space
between them.

Return to oven to bake at 275 degrees for 40 minutes,
reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once
during baking.

Let cool and store in an airtight container.

Per biscotto: 80 calories, 2 gm protein, 11 gm
carbohydrates, 4 gm fat, 17 mg cholesterol, 1 gm saturated
fat, 41 mg sodium

After mixing and being shaped, the dough has to spend about
2 hours in the freezer before it is baked (it can stay
longer). There are two bakings, which will total about 1
hour and 40 minutes.

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