Let me tell you a secret.
I despised peanut butter as a child! I know, right?!
Thankfully I grew out of that nonsense and I absolutely adore peanut butter. I bake with it more than ever and those things I bake usually involve chocolate too, because uhh... it's only the best flavour combination EVER!
Biscotti are one of the most underrated cookies.
Why? Because I think they are often made incorrectly!
Let me explain...
There are Cantucci - one would say those are the original traditional biscotti. They are quite hard and often made from eggs, sugar, flour and almonds with no oil or butter. They are absolutely meant to accompany your coffee or espresso and need a good dunking!
Any other biscotti can be deliciously tender and crunchy without needing to be soaked in liquid. The right amount of sugar (not too much), some butter and not too much flour (this is important!) makes a cookie that is satisfying on its own with a stress-relieving crunch that doesn't break your teeth.
These are just that!
Tender peanut buttery cookies packed with dark chocolate chunks! They are salty-sweet with a crunchy sugar topping.
How to make traditional biscotti:
A lot of recipes out there make biscotti the way you'd make most cookies - by creaming butter and sugar, but that is not the traditional method.
My mom taught me how to make biscotti and the real way is to only use melted butter that gets whisked into beaten eggs and sugar. It's almost like making muffin batter, except the proportion of dry ingredients outweighs the wet ingredients to leave you with a stiffer (but not dry) dough.
Crisp Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Biscotti
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups 250g all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- ¾ cup 150g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup 56g unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup 80ml natural unsalted crunchy peanut butter, melted
- ½ cup 85g dark chocolate chips
- ½ cup 60g dried tart cherries
- 1 egg well beaten for brushing
- coarse sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk to blend evenly.
- Whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl until lightened in colour. Stir together melted butter and peanut butter and stir it into the egg mixture.
- Add flour, baking powder and salt and start to stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until most of the flour is absorbed. Add chocolate chips and dried cherries and fold them through the dough so that they are evenly distributed. The dough will be a bit sticky.
- Divide dough in half and place onto a lightly floured work surface. With lightly floured hands, gently roll each portion into a 12-inch log and place along the length of your prepared baking sheet spacing them about 3 inches apart. Flatten logs so that they are about 2½ inches wide and ¾-inch high.
- Brush flattened logs lightly with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 23-25 minutes until golden brown. Transfer baking sheets to a wire rack and cool for at least 30 minutes so that the cookie logs no longer feel soft and are firm enough to slice neatly. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
- Use a large sharp knife to slice logs into ½-inch pieces and place them back onto the baking sheet so they are standing right-side-up. Bake for 10-15 minutes until dry and crisp. Serve with espresso!
Nidhi
Hey , have made this so many times .. want to try it out without eggs! can I make this eggless ? Can I use flax egg for this . Plz help me . Thanks so much
christina.marsigliese
Hi Nidhi, this is a traditional recipe that requires eggs. You can try experimenting but it will not have the same texture with flax eggs.