Ingredients
2 cup walnut halves (about 8 oz)
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
5 tbsp unsalted butter plus
1 tsp unsalted butter
2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp grated orange zest
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the walnuts on a cookie sheet and
toast until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool and then chop
coarsely. In a double boiler over simmering water, melt the chocolate
and butter together. Remove from the heat and stir until smooth. Let
cool for 10 minutes. Sift together the flour and baking powder. In a
large bowl, beat the eggs lightly. Gradually beat in the sugar. Add
the orange zest. Stir in the cooled chocolate until blended. Stir in
the flour and baking powder until incorporated. Fold in the chopped
walnuts. Divide the dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap and
refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. Butter a large cookie sheet
and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Shape each half of the dough
into a 14 x 2-1/2-inch log. Place about 4 inches apart on the
prepared pan. Smooth the tops and sides with a rubber spatula. Bake
for 40-45 minutes, or until the logs are firm when pressed in the
center. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Do not turn off the
oven. Slide the logs onto a cutting board. With a large knife, cut
each log diagonally into 1/2-inch slices. Stand the slices upright on
edge on the prepared cookie sheet. Return to the oven and bake for
15 minutes longer, or until crisp. Transfer to wire racks to cool
completely.
Servings: 4 dozen
Chocolate-Walnut Biscotti Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Biscotti; Chocolate; Cookie; Dessert; Italian
The History of Recipes
It is possible to read the history of meal recipes way back into antiquity, in truth as far back as ancient Egypt, and potentially, even further back. Interesting though that is, these, old records were just very basic pictorial instructions for meal preparation.
In fact, the most ancient recipe discovered so far, according to Professor Solomon Katz, are a few clay tablets in Sumerian which show the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making those who drank it feel blissful and exhilarated. Later on, in The time of the roman empire 25BC a roman called Apicius compiled a few scripts which described recipes cooked by the Romans. In his works, he describes how the roman meals were separated into hors d`oeuvre, entrees and dessert, something that is very familiar to us today. He also recounts how the ancient cooks were skilled in the use of a good variety of spices, including a few that will be familiar to modern cooks such as bay, fennel and asafoetida. Later, in the fifteenth century, people returning from the crusades brought us many new foods and herbs from Arab cuisine, including spices like basil and coriander. The introduction of these new culinary ideas prompted an outbreak in recipe publications, some of which still exist in private collections. The arrival of television brings us celebrity TV chefs and the recipe books that accompanied them. And that neatly brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, allowing us all to access massive numbers of recipes such as those found on this web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Chocolate Walnut Biscotti recipe.
