wouldn't make again: January 2009 Archives

I really wanted to love this recipe. After all, it comes from David Lebovitz, and it's chocolate. I had been in the worst mood all day and I thought these would be the perfect pick-me-up. Sure, I sprinkled a bit too much sugar on top, but I actually like the way that looks, kind of like the snow we have covering the frozen ground. My problem with these is that they're too hard and dense. The dough was very dry and difficult to work with. After the first bake, when I tried to slice them I got an awful lot of broken pieces.

It looks like the only major difference in the basic formula between this and the Martha Stewart recipe, are that Martha's have 4 tablespoons of butter and these have none. I think that 1/2 stick of butter makes all the difference. Or, maybe these just needed another egg, as in this recipe for chocolate hazelnut biscotti from smitten kitchen, to make the dough a little wetter, and the resulting cookies less dense. 

I must say, however, that the fact that these aren't the biscotti I envisioned when I read David's post and decided to make them immediately hasn't stopped them from disappearing at an amazing rate (albeit, a bit slower than usual). I need to lay off the baking for a while. Oops! Except that I just made muffins.

» Recipe for David Lebovitz's Chocolate Biscotti