Chocolate cookies. Yes. But not exactly. Hard to describe. Maybe Biscotti is a better name.
Laughing at myself. I’ve finally gone off this restrictive diet and after having a couple of old dinner favorites (already posted here) I settled back into a fairly low-carb regime with an occasional sweet or treat. I was craving a cookie, and after going through my huge to-try file, I settled on these things. It’s a recipe that’s been in the file for years, I believe. These cookies – not exactly biscotti, because they’re not double baked liked biscotti, or cookies either, because they’re sliced on the diagonal (kind of like biscotti would be) are different. Kind of hard to describe, as I said above. You could call them chocolate rocks. Or biscotti. Or chocolate sliced cookies. Any name would work.
The dough contains no butter or traditional fat – the only fat comes from the nearly one pound of chocolate in the batter. That’s enough, although I’ll tell you, the dough is not very easy to man-handle. It’s a very dry dough (eggs, espresso, cocoa, vanilla, leavening, flour, sugar, fresh orange zest, and a hefty amount of cinnamon and ground cloves). At the end you add in some nuts (hazelnuts and/or almonds). I ended up removing half the dough and just mixing half at a time. Overworking the dough would make for a very tough cookie. The dough – almost the consistency of firm bread dough – is sectioned into 4 pieces, then rolled into short logs. Because of the chocolate pieces in it and the nuts, it makes for some difficult handling, I’ll tell you. The rolls don’t want to roll very well. Or as you roll one, a drier spot appears (more nuts, for instance) and then the roll falls apart. I ended up adding a bit more espresso to the mixture to help hold it all together. The original recipe, from Susan Herrmann Loomis 
is called Almond Cocoa Cookies. Maybe they came from one of her cookbooks as I don’t find the recipe on her website.
You can see from the above picture – the rolled up log at the top and then the cut (raw) cookie dough below. Onto a cookie sheet they went (mine are ridged, so nothing sticks) although the recipe suggested parchment be used.
They’re baked at 375°F for somewhere between 15-20 minutes. Susan indicated at 15 minutes they’re still quite soft and cakey, and with 5 more minutes baking they’re then firm. I baked mine for 17 minutes and they were firm enough, although my oven runs a bit hot so that may be why. They cooled easily enough and Susan says they keep for a couple of weeks at room temp. I’ll be freezing mine, just because I always do. But as firm as they are, I may truly want to defrost them before eating. Don’t want to break a tooth.
MY CHANGES: I reduced the amount of ground cloves and that was a good thing. Clove flavor goes a loooong way, in my book. She used a full tablespoon. I also didn’t get as many cookies as Susan did. I may have added a little bit more espresso to the mixture just to get it to hold together. I also used half sugar and half Swerve, and used 1 3/4 cups total, not 2 cups. It made for a slightly less-sweet cookie. I also didn’t have vanilla sugar – I just added in a slightly large quantity of liquid vanilla. The original recipe called for 8 ounces of almonds AND 8 ounces of hazelnuts. There is simply no way the dough could absorb that much nuts. I didn’t have hazelnuts on hand so just added almonds and only about 5 ounces.
What’s GOOD: well, they’re different. Different texture (firm to the tooth) and flavor (lots of ground clove flavor comes through). Yes, chocolate too. Although there is all that bar chocolate in it, these don’t taste decadent. I think, overall, I prefer the easy chocolate biscotti recipe I have here on my blog already, but then it’s truly a biscotti (easy one, though). Later note: I enjoyed one of these with my morning coffee and have decided they really are more like biscotti. They’re not hard crunchy (break your tooth kind of crunchy), but more like a firm but dry cookie. The coffee flavor came through and the ground clove flavor has tamed down a bit. Do note the low calorie and fat – even with a pound of chocolate, I’m pleased at the statistics.
What’s NOT: only the difficulty rolling the logs. The dry parts of the cookies (the nuts, chopped chocolate and the dry ingredients in general) make it hard to combine. Cutting them into their log shapes was okay – if you have any larger pieces of chocolate in them, it may make for difficult slicing. Other than that, nothing is hard to do. They’d be good dunked in coffee which is probably what I’ll do tomorrow morning.
printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)
* Exported from MasterCook *
Almond Chocolate Biscotti Cookies
Recipe By: Adapted slightly from Susan Herrmann Loomis, 2015
Serving Size: 50
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch sea salt
16 ounces bittersweet chocolate — preferably Lindt brand
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups vanilla sugar
The minced zest of one orange — preferably organic
3/4 cup espresso coffee — or very strong coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 ounces almonds — lightly toasted, or hazelnuts, or a combination or both
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powders, cloves, cinnamon, and salt together onto a piece of waxed paper.
3. Chop the chocolate into chips the size of a pea. The pieces will be uneven – don’t worry.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs and the sugar and whip until the mixture is pale yellow and light. Mix in the orange zest, 1/2 cup of the coffee, and the vanilla. Then add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly but JUST until combined. If the mixture is very dry, add the remaining coffee – the dough should be somewhat sticky; it will also be very firm. Add the almonds and the chocolate and mix until combined. NOTE: If the mixture stresses your stand mixer, remove half of the dough and set aside and add half the nuts and chocolate. Remove it, then combine the 2nd batch of dough with the nuts and chocolate.
5. Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Cover three of them with a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Lightly flour your hands and roll the fourth piece on a floured work surface to form a log that measures 14 x 1-1/2-inches.[I couldn’t get rolls that long no matter how hard I tried.] Roll over the log with a rolling pin to slightly flatten it, then cut the log diagonally into 1/2-inch thick strips. Transfer the strips to one of the prepared baking sheets, placing them 1/2-inch apart. Repeat with the remaining dough.
6. Bake the cookies in the center of the oven until they are puffed and look dry, 15 to 20 minutes. (When they have baked for 15 minutes, the cookies will have a somewhat cakey texture; during the last 5 minutes of baking they will harden like biscotti). Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container. They will keep for several weeks.
Per Serving: 135 Calories; 7g Fat (41.9% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 8mg Cholesterol; 37mg Sodium.
hddonna
said on January 23rd, 2020:
These are certainly intriguing–unlike any cookie recipe I’ve seen before. I’m afraid I’m the only one in the family they’d really appeal to, but perhaps I’ll do a half recipe sometime.
These cookies have “grown” on me. I’ve really enjoyed one with my coffee a couple of mornings. But, oh they are really like rocks straight from the freezer. Definitely need to defrost them. Or, if you make half a batch, they could be left out as they keep for awhile. . . carolyn t
hddonna
said on January 24th, 2020:
Sounds like they would be very satisfying–important, since I have to limit the carbs. I am wondering if using all sugar would affect the texture–will let you know if I try it.
Toffeeapple
said on February 3rd, 2020:
My arthritic hands will not allow me to even think about these!
Oh, that’s too bad, Toni. You mean forming the logs would be difficult. So sorry! . . carolyn t