Biscotti, I’m sure you know means ‘twice baked’ in Italian, and that’s exactly what you have to do with these lovely little biscuits. They make wonderful gifts packaged up in waxed paper, placed in gift boxes or wrapped in raffia.

I’ve also given two options on the second cooking time, 7-8 minutes will produce a marginally softer end biscuit, as I know some don’t like the hardness of a traditional baked biscotti. However, if you do want that typical hard biscuit to dip into your cappuccino or mocha, then just leave them in for the full 12 minutes.

You could use large chocolate chunks, or something like M&Ms, instead of mini eggs for biscuits that will go down a treat at any time of year, not just Easter.

I’ve used a mild olive oil for these, so there’s no need to waste your expensive extra virgin oil (and also the taste of the higher quality oils aren’t needed here)

Notes

• It doesn’t matter if you use sugar-coated mini eggs or just solid chocolate ones. Equally use your favourite chocolate, whether that’s milk or dark (white is a bit too sweet for this bake)
• Makes around 30 biscotti
• Takes 10 minutes to prepare and around 40 minutes to bake in total (this includes cooling for 10 minutes in between the bakes)

Equipment

• Large bowl
• Two large baking sheets (or multiple small ones/cook in batches)
• Baking paper/parchment (if it’s not reliably non-stick, wipe a kitchen towel moistened with olive oil over it)
• Sharp knife, a heavy one is most useful
• Spatula/slices (for lifting)
• Wire airing rack

Ingredients

• Plain flour or Tipo 00 flour – 270g
• Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
• Salt – 1 teaspoon
• Eggs, medium/large sized – 2
• Caster sugar – 120g
• Olive oil – 95ml
• Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon
• Mini chocolate Easter eggs – 2 x typical 80g packs

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160 C fan or 180 C conventional (325 F)
2. Line your baking trays with the parchment
3. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, caster sugar, olive oil and vanilla extract and bring this gooey dough together in the bowl
4. Now gently mix in the eggs
5. Have your worktop/table covered in a light dusting of flour
6. Take the mix out of the bowl and divide into two
7. Shape each piece of dough into a long, slightly flattened log about 6cm in width
8. You may want to press in a few additional eggs into the top of the dough, so they are seen after baking
9. Bake for 20 mins until just starting to brown
10. Take the bakes out of the oven, but do not turn your oven off
11. Leave the bakes to cool, still sat on their baking trays
12. After about 10-12 minutes they should be cool enough to slice
13. Using a sharp knife, cut off 1 cm / 0.5 inch slices and lay them on their sides on the baking trays (like in the image below)

14. Place the sliced biscuits bake in the oven
15. Leave them for 8 minutes for a shortbread-like consistency or for 12 minutes if you would like hard biscotti to dunk in your coffee
16. Leave to cool and store in an airtight container for 3 – 4 days (up to a week if you baked them harder)