These chocolate almond biscotti are a traditional Italian chocolate cookie made with cocoa, roasted almonds and honey. Twice baked until crisp, they are perfect for dunking in coffee and often dipped in dark chocolate.
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Recipe Overview: Chocolate Almond Biscotti
Flavor:Â Easy Italian chocolate biscotti with orange zest, honey and toasted almonds.
Texture:Â Twice baked until crisp, with extra crunch from the almonds.
Why you’ll love them: Made without butter but still rich and chocolatey.
Yield:Â Ready in under an hour and makes 30, perfect for holiday baking.
Chocolate almond biscotti are a special treat in our house, one I make every Christmas season. In Italy these twice baked cookies are known as Cantucci, though whatever you call them, they took me a few tries to get right. My first batches were made with butter and no honey, and they either crumbled or never got that crisp texture I was after.
After talking with Italian family and friends, I learned two things: this style of chocolate biscotti is made without butter, and a little honey is what gives them their signature crunch. Filled with toasted almonds and twice baked, they are perfect for dipping in strong espresso, a glass of wine or the traditional Italian dessert wine Vin Santo. If you love biscotti, try my chocolate chip biscotti or fresh and citrusy lemon biscotti.
Ingredient Notes
- Almonds:Â Use whole skinned almonds and toast them first. Toasting deepens their flavor and keeps them crunchy inside the cookie. Let them cool before adding them to the dough.
- Flour: Plain all purpose flour is all you need. Biscotti are meant to be firm and crisp, so there’s no reason for cake flour or anything fancy here.
- Cocoa:Â Use a good quality unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa. It gives these traditional Italian biscotti their rich chocolate flavor without any added sweetness.
- Honey: Just a teaspoon or so, but don’t skip it. The honey helps give the biscotti their signature crunch.
- Vanilla:Â A teaspoon rounds out the chocolate. Some bakers use half vanilla and half almond extract to play up the almond flavor, and that works nicely here too.
- Orange zest:Â Zest from half an orange brightens the chocolate. Zest only the orange part of the peel, the white pith underneath is bitter.
- Dark chocolate:Â For dipping the cooled biscotti. Choose a good quality bar rather than chocolate chips, it melts smoother.
- Eggs:Â The recipe has no butter or oil, so eggs bind the dough. Room temperature eggs combine more easily with the sugar.
How to Make Chocolate Almond Biscotti
To start, spread almonds on a cookie sheet and toast them in the oven for about 5 minutes, until they smell nutty, then set them aside to cool. Toasting makes a real difference in flavor, so don’t skip it.
Next, the dough comes together in one bowl. Beat the eggs and sugar, then add the dry ingredients along with the honey, vanilla and orange zest. A wooden spoon works fine here. Once you have a rough dough, fold in the almonds.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it briefly, just until smooth. Shape it into 3 logs, each about 8 to 10 inches long. Two bigger logs work too, but three gives you nicely sized cookies.
Brush the tops with a little beaten egg and bake the logs for about 20 minutes.
Let the baked logs rest for 5 minutes before slicing, otherwise they will crumble under the knife. Cut them on the diagonal into 1/4 inch slices, lay the slices flat on the pan and return them to the oven until they feel dry, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Cool the chocolate almond biscotti completely before dipping them in the melted chocolate. It’s worth the wait, warm cookies and melted chocolate make a mess.
Chocolate Almond Biscotti Recipe Tips
- Measure the honey lightly. A teaspoon to a teaspoon and a half is all you need, too much and the biscotti can turn hard enough to break a tooth.
- Dust your hands and the surface with a mix of flour and cocoa powder. The dough is soft and a little sticky, and the cocoa keeps white streaks off the dark dough.
- Slice with a sharp serrated knife, cutting on the diagonal. You get those classic long biscotti and the knife cuts through the almonds cleanly instead of tearing the cookies.
- If you prefer softer biscotti, bake the slices for a shorter time in the second bake. For extra crunchy cookies, leave them the full 10 minutes.
- Let the dipped chocolate set at room temperature, or speed it up with a few minutes in the fridge.
Variations
- Add a teaspoon of instant espresso powder to the dry ingredients. It deepens the chocolate flavor without making the biscotti taste like coffee.
- Swap the toasted almonds for chocolate covered almonds. Skip the toasting and fold them straight into the dough.
- Not an almond fan? Leave them out and use chocolate chips instead for a double chocolate biscotti, or try my pistachio biscotti for a different nut entirely.
- After dipping, sprinkle the chocolate with slivered almonds before it sets for extra crunch on top. If you love the cranberry and almond combination, my cranberry almond biscotti with white chocolate chips are a holiday favorite.
Whether you call these Traditional Italian Chocolate Almond Biscotti, Cantucci or Biscotti, I think you will find them very tasty and so easy to make. They are a perfectly delicious addition to your holiday baking. Enjoy!
- ¾ cup whole skinned almonds
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1¾ cup all purpose flour (if needed add 1-2 tablespoons of flour)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 – 1½ teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 3½ ounces dark chocolate (good quality)
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Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
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On an unlined cookie sheet toast almonds for approximately 5 minutes in the pre-heated oven. Remove from oven, move to a small bowl and let cool.
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In a medium bowl beat eggs and sugar to combine, then add flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, honey, vanilla and zest and combine with a wooden spoon, then fold in the almonds.
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Move to a lightly floured flat surface and gently knead into a soft dough.
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Divide into 2-3 parts and form into 2-3 logs (I found 3 logs to be just right). Approximately 8-10 inches long, place on prepared cookie sheet and brush with beaten egg (a small egg), bake for approximately 20 minutes.
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Remove from oven, let sit 5 minutes and then cut each log into 1/4 inch slices on the diagonal, place cut side up on the cookie sheet and bake again for approximately 5-10 minutes or until dry. Let cool completely before dipping in melted chocolate. Enjoy!
How To Store Homemade Biscotti
Once the chocolate biscotti are completely cooled, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. They will keep well for up to two weeks at room temperature.
Can Biscotti Be Frozen?
Biscotti can be frozen. Once the cookies have cooled completely, place them in a freezer bag or container. The cookies will last up to three months in the freezer.
You can also freeze the raw biscotti logs. Wrap in plastic and place in a freezer bag. They will keep for about a month in the freezer.
Be sure to let them thaw in the fridge before proceeding with the recipe.
Calories: 89kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 11mg | Sodium: 25mg | Potassium: 74mg | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 15IU | Calcium: 19mg | Iron: 0.9mg
Updated from October 12, 2017.
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