Chocolate Citrus Biscotti

As I mentioned before, I'm trying out different recipes of biscotti to be hand out to my friends Monica's wedding. This recipe is one that I made for my family for years, I saw this being made on an" Every day Italian" episode by Giada De Laurentiis ( love her). I tried it and it came out great, since then it's one of our favorite. The boys love it with hot chocolate, Alex can't drink his hot chocolate without a biscotti. It's also great when I don't have any dessert ( doesn't happen very often) A cup of hot chocolate and a biscotti and the dessert is served.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup fine yellow cornmeal

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp orange zest

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 3/4 desiccated coconut ( optional) for garnish

1 cup silvered or ground almonds (optional) for garnish

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat. Preheat the oven to 325˚F

In a medium mixing bowl sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder,salt and add the lemon and orange zest.

In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs with the sugar on high speed for 3 minutes or until pale yellow and fluffy.

Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix on low speed until just blended. The dough will be sticky. Let stand for 5 minutes.

With a rubber spatula divide the dough in two equal parts and transfer to the prepared baking sheet. With moist hands shape the dough into two rectangles 11 by 4 inches.

Bake until golden about 35 minutes. Cool the logs ( or rectangles) for 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and with a serrated knife cut into 1/2 inch tick pieces. You can cut them diagonally or just straight.

Arrange the biscotti cut side down on the same baking sheet and bake until the biscotti are golden and crispy. About 25 minutes.

Cool the biscotti in the baking sheet for 5 minutes, using a spatula transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

In a microwave safe dish place the chocolate chips. Microwave until almost melted stirring once ( it will take about 2 minutes). Dip each biscotti in chocolate and using a small spatula takeoff excess chocolate.

Garnish with coconut or almonds if you desire. Or they can be left just with the chocolate.

Grab a cup of coffee and ....

..... Enjoy!