Chocolate Biscotti

Directions

1. 1
   Heat oven to 350 degrees (F).
2. 2
   Melt the butter and chocolate together and set aside. I melted mine in a double boiler pan as I am sans microwave at the moment! Either way, do it over very low heat, stirring frequently until melted.
3. 3
   With an electric hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until lightened, about two minutes. Then, add the vanilla and the melted chocolate mixture.
4. 4
   Mix in the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt just until combined. You should have a soft, but not sticky, dough. You can add 1/4 cup more flour if you feel your dough is too sticky. I did not need too.
5. 5
   Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, form each half into a log that is 31/2 inches by 9 inches. Place the logs on a heavy duty baking sheet. You can brush with egg white if desired to give it a nice sheen, but this is not neccessary. Bake for 25 minutes or until tops are set.
6. 6
   Remove from heat and reduce oven to 275 degrees (F). Let logs cool as long as you can (the cooler they are, the easier they are to cut), and then slice into 1/2-inch thick slices. I let mine cool for about 45 minutes. When slicing, I used a serrated bread knife and more or less pushed it through the loaf, rather than 'sawing' it as you would a piece of bread. You may have some pieces break when doing this and that is OK; that just means there is more for you to sample!
7. 7
   Arrange the slices on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, carefully turn slices over, and bake for another 20 minutes.
8. 8
   Cool on a wire rack.
9. 9
   Once completely cool, melt your white chocolate discs. Again, I used my double boiler on the stove top. Once melted, dip one end of each biscotti into the melted white chocolate! You may need to adjust the amount of white chocolate you melt depending on the size of the pot you are dippping into to ensure you get a decent coat on your sticks.
10. 10
    I then turned a dinner plate upside down and rested the biscottis on the edge so the side with the white chocolate could cool without touching anything. Since these were holiday gifts, I sprinkled red and green sprinkles on the chocolate before it dried.
11. 11
    Store in air tight containers.
12. 12
    Kudos to my blogger friend, Farmgirl Fare, from whom I stole this recipe and then kicked it up a notch with the melted white chocolate!