Chocolate Fig Biscotti Recipe

When it comes to my palate, I can sometimes be totally childish (vanilla soft serve with extra rainbow sprinkles and marshmallows, please) and sometimes be more grownup (uni, uni at every meal thank you). Falling into the latter camp is my love for dark chocolate. Bitter, tannic, not-yo-mamma's-milk-chocolate chocolate.

That's why I took a chocolate biscotti recipe that I've been making for a while (first gleaned from the pages of Gourmet), took out the chocolate chips and some sugar, then used the best unsweetened cocoa powder I could find.

The resulting cookies are chocolatey and just the right amount of sweet. Yes, eat them for dessert, but maybe pair them with a sweet dessert wine. The figs add little pops of chewy, plumy fruit flavor. If the figs you buy in the market are too dry and chewy, try reconstituting them with a little boiling water. I made these biscotti extra long because that seemed to match their elegant flavor, but they're certainly harder to store that way, so feel free to cut the cookies in two before the second bake.

adapted from Gourmet

Recipe Details

Chocolate Fig Biscotti Recipe

Active 15 mins
Total 60 mins
Makes 30 biscotti

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup diced dried figs

Directions

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients and beat until dough comes together (it will be dry) then mix in figs.

  4. Divide dough into two equal pieces. Form each piece into a 12- by 2- inch log and place on baking sheets. Bake until cooked through but still soft, about 30 minutes.

  5. When cool enough to handle, use a serrated knife to cut biscotti into 3/4-inch thick pieces. Place back on baking sheet and bake until dry and toasted, about another 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Special equipment

baking sheet, stand mixer,