Chocolate, Honey and Almond Biscotti - for Organic September

When the good people at Sainsbury’s asked if I would like to be sent some of their So Organic range to come up with a few new recipes, I knew I would love the challenge. This is to promote Organic Food Month this September.

I didn’t know what ingredients I’d be sent or what I would make, so when I said yes and the So Organic goodies arrived my brain got ticking. I will have a few recipes using the produce through September, but the first batch I used included honey, blanched almonds and Fairtrade dark chocolate.

I took a look at these ingredients and they screamed the word biscotti at me. I have made biscotti before, namely chocolate and hazelnut biscotti. But this recipe was to be a plain biscuit with chocolate chunks studded throughout, toasted almonds and the sweet addition of the runny honey. Here's how I made it...

Ingredients:

2 eggs

115 grams granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons Sainsbury’s So Organic Clear Honey

235 grams plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

100 grams Sainsbury’s So Organic blanched almonds

100 grams Santo Domingo Fairtrade Organic Dark Chocolate, chopped

adapted from Joy of Baking

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180^oC. Lay the almonds out on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 8 minutes, or until they have turned slightly brown and you can begin to smell them. Remove from the oven (keeping it at 180^oC) and give them a rough chop. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt, set this aside. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the sugar and eggs on high for 3-5 minutes, until the mixture is very pale and creamy looking. Add the vanilla and honey and beat for a further minute.

Add this wet mixture to the flour mix and combine. Add the almonds and chocolate and mix through evenly. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and spoon the mixture into the middle. With a couple of knives, form the dough into an oblong about 4” by 10”. This is pretty sticky stuff, but using the knives avoids any mess.

Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. The oblong will turn dark brown and rise slightly. Remove from the oven (drop the temperature to 165oC) and carefully remove the greaseproof paper. Let it cool on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Then with a bread knife, cut into 1” thick slices. Place each slice back onto the baking sheet (lined with new greaseproof paper) on their side and bake for 10 minutes. Flip each biscuit over and bake for a further 8 minutes.

Again, remove from the oven and greaseproof paper and allow to cool on a rack completely.

The biscotti is very crisp. It has delicious floral sweetness from the honey and the dark chocolate and creamy almond compliment each other well. These go great with a hot coffee and are just waiting to be dunked! Enjoy…

Disclosure Statement: I was sent So Organic items free to bake with. Any opinions expressed are my own.