This was a recipe that Cindy from Pasta Sonoma shared with us. She’s been making it for years and let us know that she had great success subbing in our whole grain flour. We were thrilled to hear it! We added candied orange peel for some lovely color and texture. If you’re short on time, leave out the candied orange peel step and add in 1/4 teaspoon of orange extract or use store-bought candied peels! Thank you, Cindy, for sharing your baking successes with us!

Chocolate Chip and Orange Biscotti

Makes about 40 cookies.

Ingredients

For candied orange peel:

2 medium oranges
1/4 cup sugar

For the biscotti:

1 3/4 cup Community Grains Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup candied orange peels, chopped or thinly sliced

Baking Instructions

For the candied orange peel:

With a peeler, remove the orange peels in large strips. Depending on the variety of orange you are using, you will want to use a sharp knife to remove any excess pith on the undersides of the peels.
Bring 1 c. of water to a boil in a small sauce pan. Add the peels to the boiling water and blanch for 30 seconds.
Drain the peels with this water in a fine mesh sieve and rinse with cold water. Repeat this blanching process 2 more times to remove bitter compounds from the peels.
Bring 1 c. of water to a boil, add 1/4 c. of sugar, and orange peels and cook for about 2 minutes until the liquid begins to get syrupy. Drain the water and peels again in the sieve and rinse with cold water. Let the peels drain and then thinly slice or coarsely chop.

For the biscotti:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit with rack positioned in the center. In a small bowl, whisk flour and baking soda together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, lemon juice, and zest for 2-3 minutes, until pale yellow in color. Stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and orange peels. This mixture should be thick and sticky – careful not to overwork.
Scoop the batter onto parchment-lined baking sheet and dived evenly into two long loved (each about 10 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide). Place them about 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 35 minutes, until firm but springy. Remove from over and cool for 10 minutes on the pan.
When cool, gently move the loaves to a citing board. Using a serrated knife, slice loved on the diagonal into 1/2-inch lives. Lay the sliced back no the baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes more, turning the slices over once (so they will bake for about 12 minutes on each side). They should be golden brown before you remove them.
Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storing in an airtight contained at too temperature for several weeks. Cookies should remain dry and very crunchy.