Food Blogger Cookie Swap: Dark Chocolate Peppermint Biscotti

Hooray!  It's finally time to share with you all my recipe for the great Food Blogger cookie swap! I sent out my cookies the last day of November, and hopefully they made their way in one piece to:

Georgia: http://foodvictorian.blogspot.com/
Ohio: http://www.sorelleecibo.com/
and New York: http://snacktimemunchies.com/.

 I wrapped them up as tightly as possible, but the first Postal Service employee who touched them literally tossed them into a bin full of boxes.  It was horrifying.  My poor baby biscottis.

Anyhoo, here is the recipe I came up with.  I pretty much winged it, although I used  a basic chocolate biscotti recipe as jumping off point from The Ultimate Cookie Book.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp peppermint extract
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup dark chocolate chips
6 ounces Bakers Dipping chocolate
1/2 cup starlight peppermint candies, crushed

To my horror, I turned on my camera to start documenting this project and saw this sad broken screen staring back at me.  My 10 year highschool reunion was the weekend before.  It was a rough night.  As a result, I had to take all of these pictures with my iPhone, apologies for the lower-than-normal photo quality.

First things first, mix together your softenened butter and sugar, then add in your cocoa powder, baking soda and extract, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Then add in your eggs, one at a time.  This smells SO SO very yummy. 

Candy time.

When everything is mixed, form your dough into 2 logs, about 9 inches long and 3-4 inches wide.  Beware, the dough is very sticky.  Bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes until the logs pass the toothpick test.

Let them cool completely on a wire rack.  This is an opportune time to cook dinner for your husband, who can't understand why you spend so much time in the kitchen, covered with flour....

Once the biscotti is cooled, slice each log at an angle, cutting pieces about 1/2 inch in width.  I'm really bad at guestimating distance of any kind, so mine were probably closer to an inch.

As a result, I only had about 32 biscotti when all was said and done, so I had to whip up batch number 3.  This was complicated by the fact that my kitchen aid bowl and paddle were already washing away in the dishwasher.  Fortunately, I had a back up plan:

Now, on to the reason why biscotti takes so long: The triple baking.  Lower your oven temp down to 325, and lay your biscotti pieces out on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for about 9 minutes.  Flip them over, then bake for 6 or 7 more.  Get them nice and crunchy and dried out :)

Yum.  While they cooled off on the wire rack, I got my Peppermint candies going in the food processor.  This was actually the maiden voyage of our new appliance, we recieved it as a wedding gift from my lovely cousin Steve and his girlfriend Megan :) it's pretty Bad Ass.

Then it was time to dip dip dip.  I set up a little work station on my dining room table, and went to work. 

I dipped the biscotti in Baker's Dipping Chocolate first (I kind of felt like I was cheating by not actually melting down chocolate in a double boiler but... man was this a convenient shortcut).  Then I rolled each one in the crushed up peppermint candies.  Then it was onto a wax paper lined baking sheet and into the fridge to harden up.

I put some extras aside on a plate for me and the hubby. They were gone within a half hour.

I let the cookies chill overnight in the fridge, and packed them up in the morning before I went to work.  I picked up 3 window gift boxes at A.C. Moore, and pulled out some of my new business cards and blog-stickers to dress up the boxes.

A little ribbon and packing paper, and they were ready to go!

I was really happy with how these turned out, and I hope they made it to their destinations in one piece!  I was the happy recipient of some delicious Treats as well!

New Orleans Praline Disks from Phyl Divine in Ohio : Of Cabbages and King Cakes

Peppermint Sables from Sarah Reid in Vermont (www.dailynibbles.com)...

And finally Sprinkled Chocolate Thumbprints from Natalie Herr at www.ovenlove.blogspot.com!

I thought this was such a fun project, and a great way to connect with other bloggers, discover new blogs, and as always, discover new cookies.

Happy Holidays!

-S