Chocolate Dipped Italian Biscotti Cookies (video)
The best biscotti cookie recipe ever! I love a good Italian biscotti in the morning with my cup of coffee and my mom has been making this recipe for about 20 years now. This recipe is that good! The name ‘biscotti’ means twice baked – these cookies are baked in logs first, then sliced and baked again until crispy and crumbly. These crispy and buttery Italian cookies are made with chopped nuts and dried fruit, then coated with chocolate! This recipe makes a large batch of biscotti cookies so you’ll be set for a few weeks!
Watch My Biscotti Video Tutorial!
Watch my YouTube video tutorial for step-by-step instructions for these delicious Italian biscotti cookies! Want to receive new recipe emails in your inbox? Make sure to subscribe to my website emailing list and my YouTube channel and turn on notifications!
You’ve probably tried Italian biscotti at your favorite coffee shop but did you know these cookies are very easy to make? They take just a little bit of time but they’re so much cheaper to make at home, especially if you’re paying $2 per cookie at the coffee shop! For garnishing these cookies, I dip them into dark chocolate first, then garnish with contrasting white chocolate or chopped fruit or nuts. Wrap them into individual wrappers and give them to your family and friends any time!
Ingredients for Chocolate Dipped Italian Biscotti
Here are the main ingredients you’ll need for making these twice-baked Italian cookies:
- Eggs, Sugar, Unsalted Butter: for making the cookie dough.
- All-Purpose Flour: use only this type of flour for making the biscotti.
- Almond Extract: a classic flavoring for biscotti cookies.
- Chopped Nuts: for this recipe, I used pistachios and hazelnuts. Almonds, pecans, and macadamia nuts will also work well.
- Dried Fruit: I used dried cranberries for my cookies but feel free to use other dried fruit.
- Chocolate Chips or Melts: for dipping the biscotti cookies into chocolate.
A Family Recipe!
This classic biscotti recipe has been in my family forever! My grandfather and aunt used to work at a biscotti factory long ago and shared this ‘secret’ recipe with my family. I love this Italian cookie recipe because you can make these cookies with just about any type of filling and/or flavor! For this recipe, I went with pistachios and cranberry but just about any nut and dried fruit will work: hazelnuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts, raisins, dried strawberries, raisins, dried pineapple.
How to Make Italian Biscotti Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray. Remove the butter from the refrigerator and let it stand at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before using in the recipe.
- Place the eggs and sugar into a mixer bowl and whisk on high speed until light in color and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Cut the butter into small pieces; the butter needs to be firm, not melting or runny. Swap the mixer whisk to a flat beater and add the butter; mix for 3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla or almond extract next.
- Combine 4 cups of all-purpose flour with baking powder. Add approximately 2 cups of flour to the mixer bowl and beat the cookie batter for 3-4 minutes until it’s smooth and creamy and butter is well-incorporated into the batter. Add the remaining 2 cups flour next.
- Using a spatula, fold in 1 more cup of flour by hand. Turn the cookie dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead in the remaining 1/2 cup flour by hand. The dough should remain very soft but not too sticky! Lightly flour your work surface and knead the dough for a few minutes until uniform and smooth. Shape the dough into large rectangle and sprinkle your desired nuts and cranberries over the top (any type of nut or dried fruit/berry will work; I love to used chopped, dried apricots, too). Fold the dough over nuts and knead it to evenly incorporate the fillings.
- Divide the dough in half. Shape long logs, approximately 20 inches long. Place the logs onto the prepared baking sheet. Using a rolling pin, flatten the logs to form bars, approximately 1-inch thick and 5 to 6 inches wide.
- Bake the biscotti cookie bars in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the tops of the cookie bars turn light, golden color.
- Remove the bars from the baking sheet, and using long, serrated knife, cut them into 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch thick cookies. Return the cookies onto the baking sheet, spacing them about 1/2-centimeter.
- Set the oven to 270F. Bake the cookies a second time for 2 hours; 1 1/2 hours for slightly softer cookies, 2 1/2 for crunchier. Remove the cookies and let cool completely before garnishing them with chocolate.
Chocolate Dipped Biscotti
For chocolate garnish: melt chocolate either using a double boiler or microwave. Place chocolate into glass bowl and add 1 teaspoon of shortening. The shortening will ensure that the chocolate melts smoothly. If using microwave, set power level to 50% and stir every 30 seconds until smooth. Do the same for the white chocolate. Transfer white chocolate into a disposable pastry bag.
- Dip cookies into chocolate and place onto parchment paper. Can also dip into diced nuts, if desired. Use white chocolate to garnish the top of each cookie (see video tutorial). Let chocolate set overnight at room temperature.
- Important: to keep the cookies fresh and crunchy, keep them stored in an air-tight container! Good for several weeks.
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More Recipes!
Looking for more cookie and pastry ideas? Check out some of my other recipes you’re sure to enjoy!
- The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies – chewy cookies with chocolate, toffee bits and macadamia!
- Classic Peanut Butter Cookies – a simple and delicious soft cookie recipe!
- Tropical Pineapple Biscotti – same great recipe with a different flavor twist!
- Mom’s Old-Fashioned Spritz Butter Cookies – the richest and softest spritz cookies! Garnish with sprinkles, chocolate, or nuts!
Chocolate Dipped Italian Biscotti Cookies (video)
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
- 1/2 cup pistachios
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts, any type of nut will work; can use 1 cup pistachios instead
- 3/4 to 1 cup dried cranberries
For Chocolate Coating:
- 2 to 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or melts
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon shortening, as needed
- diced pistachios, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray. Remove butter from refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before using in recipe.
- Place eggs and sugar into a mixer bowl and whisk on high speed until light in color and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Cut butter into small pieces; butter needs to be firm, not melting or runny. Swap mixer whisk to a flat beater and add the butter; mix for 3-4 minutes. Add vanilla or almond extract.
- Combine 4 cups of all-purpose flour with baking powder. Add approximately 2 cups of flour to mixer bowl and beat batter for 3-4 minutes until smooth and creamy and butter is well-incorporated into the batter. Add remaining 2 cups flour.
- Using a spatula, fold in 1 more cup of flour by hand. Turn cookie dough out onto floured work surface. Knead in the remaining 1/2 cup flour by hand. Dough should remain very soft but not sticking excessively. Lightly flour surface and knead dough for a few minutes until uniform and smooth. Shape dough into large rectangle. Sprinkle desired nuts and cranberries over the top (any type of nut or dried fruit/berry will work; I love to used chopped, dried apricots, too). Fold dough over nuts and knead to evenly incorporate.
- Divide dough in half. Shape long logs, approximately 20 inches long. Place onto prepared baking sheet. Using rolling pin, flatten logs to form bars approximately 1-inch thick and 5 to 6 inches wide. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until tops of cookie bars turn light, golden color.
- Remove bars from baking sheet and using long, serrated knife, cut into 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch thick cookies. Return cookies onto baking sheet, spacing them about 1/2-centimeter. Set oven to 270F. Bake cookies for 2 hours; 1 1/2 hours for slightly softer cookies, 2 1/2 for crunchier. Remove cookies and let cool completely before garnishing with chocolate.
- For chocolate garnish: melt the chocolate either using a double boiler or microwave. Place the chocolate into glass bowl and add 1 teaspoon of shortening. The shortening will ensure that the chocolate melts smoothly. If using microwave, set power level to 50% and stir every 30 seconds until smooth. Do the same for the white chocolate. Transfer white chocolate into a disposable pastry bag.
- Dip cookies into chocolate and place onto parchment paper. Can also dip into diced nuts, if desired. Use white chocolate to garnish the top of each cookie (see video tutorial). Let chocolate set overnight at room temperature.
- Important: to keep the cookies fresh and crunchy, keep them stored in an air-tight container! Good for several weeks.
[…] Published on December 4, 2014 | in Dessert By tkorchemnaya | 0 Comments A classic, Italian biscotti recipe: crispy, crumbly cookies with pistachios and dried cranberries, dipped into chocolate. These cookies are very easy to make and go so well with a cup of coffee or tea! Dip them into chocolate to make them extra special. Wrap them into individual wrappers and give them to your family and friends any time! View Recipe Link […]
Hi Tatyana, I am a little confused as to the amout of flour that you use in this recipe. In the video you use only 5 cups of flour but the written recipe says 5.5 cups of flour. Could you please clarify the amout? They look absolutely delicious by the way. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi! I begin by adding 4 cups of flour, then I knead in the remaining 1 1/2 cups by hand, adding a little bit at a time. The dough just needs to be very soft but not sticky. Hope that helps! 🙂
These biscotti look irresistible! I have all the ingredients on hand and am planning to bake them today or tomorrow, depends on you
🙂 they are perfect with coffee or tea! My family’s favorite! You will love them! You can also substitute the filling. My mom adds dried pineapple and macadamia nuts, dried apricots, walnuts, etc.
I don’t know where the rest of my message went but I had another paragraph with a question.
I was wondering if I need to toast the hazelnuts or did you use raw? What I meant by “depends on you” was if I was going to get my question answered today or tomorrow. As soon as I do, I’ll be baking biscotti. Sorry for the confusion!
Made these last night for cookie platters as christmas gifts. I couldn’t help but sample one and OMG! Delicious!! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
🙂 So glad you enjoyed them!! I love these, too! Thank you for watching and trying my recipe!
This recipe is AMAZING! My biscotti looked so beautiful and professional. Most importantly it was delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂
I live in Florida and due to humidity I had to add an extra cup of flour to get the dough to be smooth.
Hi Tatyana! Would love to try making this, looks delicious!!! This recipe calls for 1 tsp of Shortening. Would olive oil or vegetable oil work too?
Yes, vegetable oil will work great here, too!
I was so excited to find your video and recipe as my first attempt at biscotti using another recipe failed miserably. As indicated, I sliced my bars right after taking them out of the oven and they crumbled as I cut. Should I have let these set a bit first? Or did something else go wrong with my attempt? They are back in the oven now for their second bake so we’ll see how they turn out…
You followed the instructions correctly, cutting them right out of the oven. Make sure to use an extra-sharp knife and cut gently. Also, make sure the cookie dough isn’t too dry, which can lead the cookies to break
I made these a while back. They turned out amazing!! Thank you for the recipe! One question, can you cut the recipe in half or will it change the consistency? Thanks!!
These are my favorite, too! 🙂 Yes, you can definitely cut it in half with no issues
can i add in abit of corn flour to add light and crumbly texture?
Yes, that would work well, too! 🙂
Great recipe I have made this many time they are delicious ?
Soo glad you enjoy this recipe!! :))
Great video…I’ve been making biscotti f or years but this is a new technique for me. Can’t wait to try it. Thank you!
Hope you enjoy this recipe, too! 🙂
So easy to make. I love the dough, texture and pliability.
Thanks! My go to biscotti recipe!
I’m so happy you love the recipe! 🙂 Thanks for leaving a review!
Hi. I plan on trying your recipe this weekend. Step 8 says to “ Let chocolate set overnight at room temperature.” Do I leave the biscotti uncovered until the next day and then put them in an air-tight container?
Hi! Yes, just let the cookies stand uncovered until the chocolate is completely set, then store in an air-tight container. Enjoy!