Italian Chocolate Chip Biscotti Recipe
A Favorite Italian Cookie Recipe, as Demonstrated on WTAE-TV Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania “A Cookie Town”
Passed down through the generations, this biscotti recipe takes me back and then forward in time. My Noni prepared this recipe not just for holidays, but they were always in the so-called cookie jar for a dunk in the milk or coffee. She made them with anise – that wonderful aroma of licorice, which permeated their home. The aroma is forever etched in my memory.
My Nuno would spike his coffee with Anisette, dunk a few biscotti, and sit around the kitchen table sharing stories of his childhood in Italy before coming to the U.S. This was during the winter months when he was not so busy with his garden and work. During these days, I saw a calmer side to him as he relaxed a bit during these hibernating months. It gave me time to learn and love him more.
While Noni prepared her biscotti with anise, I prepared mine with vanilla and mini-chocolate chips for my growing family. This was, in a sense, the chocolate chip cookie in our house. My children loved them as I kept a family tradition alive, yet switched the recipe up a bit. It enabled me to keep this food tradition alive while passing along flavors that they enjoyed.
The memories of baking, food, and the aroma of anise, which fill my home a couple of times a year, take me back to a time in my memory…back and then forward…shared with loved ones. These are the imprints we leave behind. The ones that stay with us.
Those coffee moments, my Noni’s home-baked biscotti, the aroma of anise, and the conversations that surrounded our baking and the loving conversations with my Nuno remain with me always. The sweet little girl hands that once added in the mini- chocolate chips to the dough with excitement (what I wouldn’t give for one more day), and the many celebrations, the many trays of biscotti, pizzelles, all of the family-favorite cookie trays, and memories attached to those stories are carried with me from season to season and cookie to cookie. Bake them with Love…
Why you will love this Italian biscotti recipe:
A Classic!
- This cookie dough recipe is flexible. My Noni made biscotti with anise, while I made this recipe for my daughters with mini-chocolate chips. Choose your add-ins.
- Biscotti is usually a hard-type cookie because it is classically a ‘dunker’ this version is a little softer.
- The dough can be frozen up to a month. Thaw. Form. Bake.
Ingredients you will need for this recipe – Basic cookie ingredients and choose your add-ins:
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Vanilla
- Mini-chocolate chips
- Extra sugar for sprinkling
Tools you will need for this recipe:
- Large mixing bowl
- Spatula
- Electric mixer
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Baking sheets
- Spatula
- Serrated knife
- Parchment paper
- Cookie cooling rack
Italian Biscotti Recipe
- 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup mini-chocolate chips
- sugar for sprinkling
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together and add in the eggs. Add vanilla extract and mix well to combine.
Combine all dry ingredients and stir into the creamed mixture. Add in the chocolate chips and stir.
Divide dough in half. Flour a work surface. Roll each half into a 12-inch log. Place each log onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (or lined with parchment paper) and sprinkle the top generously with sugar. Bake logs for 25 minutes at 350 degrees until lightly golden brown around the edges. Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan.
Cut loaves with a serrated knife into one-inch slices (or thinner if you like) and place cut-side down on a cookie sheet. Bake for 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees on each side (oven temps vary) until lightly golden brown. This happens quickly – stay close by!
Note: Sometimes we don’t bake them twice – they are just good sliced!
