A very crunchy biscuit for Christmas and the New Year

These little biscuits, which make great treats to eat at Christmas and the New Year, are  ideal as delicious little dipping biscuits as they are quite hard biscuits with large chunks of hazelnuts.They will keep forever- that is, if you don't eat them straight away!

They are meant to be dunked into a cup of coffee as a snack ( at least that is what the Italians do, and who are we to say doubt this !!).

Try them - they  are super-easy to make and will keep for a long time.

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole hazelnuts

2 1/2 cups of flour 

1/2 cup of cocoa powder

1  1/2 cup of Baileys hazelnut liqueur 

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup of  sugar

How to make your biscotti:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Centigrade.

Grease two oven trays with butter then sprinkle some flour on it and shake the surplus of the flour off.

Spread the hazelnuts on a oven tray and roast them for about 10 minutes.Take out of the oven, let cool down a bit and rub the skins from the nuts with your hands.If you have cold hands this will warm up your hands no end!

Put toasted hazelnuts aside for later.

Sift flour, cocoa, liqueur, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in one bowl.

Beat the eggs, beat sugar into the egg mixture, then stir in the flour mixture.

Split the dough you just made in half , sprinkle some flour on your worktop.Put one half of the dough on your worktop, pat it out with your hands, then roll it out with a well-floured rolling pin.( See below).

Sprinkle half of the hazelnuts on the dough , then press them in the dough. Roll the dough lenghtwise, then remove from worktop ( if necessary use spatula), and place on the pre-greased and floured oven-tray.

Repeat the procedure for the  second oven-tray.

Bake for 15 minutes,-  let the baked " loaves"  cool down and then cut  at an angle into slices then put on tray again ( see below). Keep the oven going. 

Bake the slices for 20 minutes, then cool.Make yourself a cappucino, dunk the biscuit and enjoy!

or can add this to your list of quick presents if you get a nice biscuit-tin, and some baking paper

as here below!