Chocolate Raspberry Biscotti with Almonds

About once a month the Sunshine Committee at work organizes a luncheon and the proceeds go to a nonprofit in town.  February's luncheon was for the Heart Association.  It's fun to gather for lunch, see people from different departments and floors that you don't usually see and sometimes we play BINGO.  Now don't get too excited, but we do play for prizes!  I have played every time the BINGO cards come out and I never win.  I announced, "I don't know why I even get a card, I never win."  It's fun to play and complain about not winning, so I do, often and loudly.  Well, this time I won! And not once but twice!  I tried to share my second winning BINGO card with someone at my table, but no one would bite.  So I left with two, very cool, prizes.  One of the prizes was a cookbook of 50 best biscotti recipes.  Now I HAVE to make biscotti.  I started with a chocolate chip version. While they were delicious, I needed to work on my shaping technique and the chocolate chips make a mess when you cut them for the second bake.  I had to try again.
These are made with cocoa powder and raspberry jam is added.  They are really good.  I thought about dipping half in chocolate or white chocolate, I'll do that next time.  I also did the second bake for 10 minutes so they aren't teeth shattering hard, but if you want dunkers make sure you do the second bake for the full 15 minutes.  These were yummy with my mid morning coffee, my after nap snack on Saturday and for breakfast on my way to church on Sunday.

Chocolate, Raspberry Biscotti with Almonds
The Best 50 Biscotti Recipes
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 medium egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup raspberry jam
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted

In a medium bowl, cream sugar and utter.  Mi in egg.  In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa and baking powder; add to butter mixture.  Stir in jam.  Divide dough in halves or thirds.  On a well-floured surface, shape into logs.  Transfer logs to a parchment paper-lined or lightly sprayed baking sheet, and bake in a preheated 325º oven for 25 minutes or until firm and lightly browned.  Cool on a rack for at least 5 minutes.  Cut logs on the diagonal into 3/4 inch slices.  Return slices to baking sheet, leaving space around each slice, and continue baking for 10-15 minutes or until desired crispness.  Cool completely on rack.

Tips:
When shaping the logs make them about 1 inch high.  I used a tape measure to keep it even.

Cool at least 10 minutes, but don't let them completely cool or they are too hard to cut.

Use a sharp serrated knife to cut, try not to cut back and forth too much or the edges crumble.

I put them in a ziplock to take the extras to work and they got all soft.  Probably because I didn't bake them to full crisp on the second baking.  It is something to work on.

February 29, 2012     Daylight  10 hours,  5 minutes,  16 seconds     Current Temp. 0º F