Orange Hazelnut Biscotti with Drizzled Chocolate

This is a spin off of the White Chocolate Lemon Biscotti!  Same recipe but I switched out the white chocolate for semisweet, the pecans for hazelnuts, and the lemon zest for orange zest.

Both versions are amazing!

To see the full recipe, click here!

White Chocolate Lemon Biscotti

Sooooooooooooooooooooo GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.  Need I say more?

Probably not, but I will anyway, lol. My mom found this recipe and asked me to make it. A week or so later, we were sitting around and I looked it up, turns out it is Giada's recipe from the Food Network. I read through the ingredients and felt it was simple enough, but I skimmed through it really quickly looking for the butter content.  That is my deal breaker for dessert. Too much butter and I'm out. MUCH to my surprise, I didn't find butter listed as an ingredient. So I scanned through again, this time looking for oil...and...nothing! I read some of the reviews and discovered ::SHOCK:: that this DESSERT did not include oil or butter. I was sold.

We bought the ingredients and got to work. As everyone in the family started arriving home from work, they individually commented that it "smelled like a bakery" in the house. The smell of the baking vanilla and lemon zest was so heart warming!

Although butter-free, this doesn't lack any flavor or moistness, because biscotti is made to be crispy anyway. Since I am handicapped when it comes to following recipes, I tweaked the recipe a bit. I decreased the baking time, added vanilla, switched out almonds for pecans, and used more white chocolate. Other than that, I've gotta hand it to Giada on this one...easy...tasty...healthy!

The most annoying part of this recipe is zesting the lemon. It was fun to do because it brought the whole family into the kitchen. Little kids can easily help make this by creaming the sugar and eggs and helping shape the biscotti logs.

Biscotti is an Italian cookie that means "twice baked." People all over the world enjoy these cookies with tea, coffee, or just by themselves! They are baked to be crispy so they soften when dipped into a hot beverage.

Yields about 20 pieces of biscotti

Ingredients
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-3 eggs
-1 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-3 tablespoons lemon zest (you can use orange zest instead)
-2 cups flour
-3/4 cup cornmeal
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
-3/4 cup chopped nuts (almonds, pecans or walnuts work best)
- 1 1/2 cups white chocolate
-1 tablespoon oil

To make
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-Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cream together the eggs and sugar using an electric mixer for about 3 minutes. The mixture will be creamy and a pale white. Stir in vanilla and lemon zest.
-In a seperate bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder. Transfer the flour mixture into the egg mixture and stir just until moistened. Stir in nuts. The mixture will be slightly sticky. Let the mixture set for 5 minutes.
-Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and shape the dough into 2 logs, about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide each. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and using a serrated knife, slice the logs diagonally. Each log should produce about 10 pieces each. Lay the cut biscotti cut side up and bake for another 20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow biscotti to cool.
-Mix white chocolate with oil and melt for 30 seconds in the microwave. Stir and return to microwave for another 20 seconds. Drizzle or dip biscotti into the chocolate and place in refrigerator to harden.
-Serve with coffee or tea!