Week 15 - Espresso Biscotti

Phew! Well I made it back from holiday, but I have to be honest I wasn't sure we would! We were pretty much the last flight to leave the country the day the volcano started to erupt, so we were lucky to get away in the first place. We had a lovely week in the Egyptian sun & then a bonus 4 days waiting for a flight home. Thankfully we didn't have to move hotels & we got upgraded to all inclusive, so it wasn't all that bad being stranded! But it's back to reality with a bump & straight back into work. It's also only just over 2 weeks away from my Moonwalk Marathon, yikes! The good news is the sun & sea has really helped to heal my feet, which were starting to wear themselves out, so I'm raring to go again & there's a daunting 20 miles planned for this weekend! Thank you to everyone for their support so far, there's still time to sponsor me if you would like to help Walk the Walk & the fantastic support they give to breast cancer charities all over the country.

You can find my sponsorship page at www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/rebecca_hodgson_mw

So, on to this weeks recipe & I thought I'd try creating a recipe using another of my fav Green & Blacks choccie bars. I've used the Espresso dark chocolate to create a delicious crunchy biscotti. The first time I made biscotti I was surprised at how easy it was, it's just a bit fiddly as you have to cook it twice. Apparently biscotti actually means twice baked in Italian? (Need an Italian to confirm that for me!) There are lots of different flavours you could try, almonds, dried fruit, chocolate whatever you like really. I think Espresso is a great variation & perfect with a cup of coffee!

250g plain flour
200g caster sugar
100g bar Green & Blacks Espresso chocolate chopped into small chunks
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
3 eggs
Few drops almond essence

1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & chocolate chunks

2. Beat the eggs with the vanilla essence, then add a little at a time to the dry ingredients & mix until it's all combined into quite a stiff dough. If it's proving tricky you can always add a tiny dash of milk to help it along

3. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface & roll it into a sausage shape. I ended up making 2 sausages as it made it a bit easier to handle! Place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment & bake in the oven at GM3/150c for 30 mins

4. Take them out the oven & leave to rest for 5 minutes. Then using a sharp knife slice the sausages on the diagonal, to make biscotti about 2cm thick. Place them back on the tray & pop into the oven for another 15 minutes. They'll still feel a little soft when you take them out the oven, but will crisp up when cool

So there you have it, delicious biscotti! I like to dunk mine in my coffee, Douwe Egberts coffee of course!! Enjoy, next weeks recipe is a request & it's going to be a goodie, see you then! Rebecca