Chocolate & Pistachio Biscotti

It is that time of year again, National Chocolate Week. The one week of the year where you can legitimately eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner without anyone raising an eyebrow.

Well, the one week of the year that isn’t in December, because we all know that chocolate is a main food group during the festive season.

I may be a little distracted during this post as I am writing it in my bedroom and one of the cats is currently running around like a crazy thing and she keeps jumping up on top of the wicker laundry basket and chasing her tail, which makes me slightly anxious because 1) it isn’t very big and I think she is going to fall off it (but to be fair, she doesn’t have far to fall so it isn’t a major concern) and 2) it is a bit old and even though she only weighs 4kg it creaks like nobody’s business and I am concerned it is going to collapse or split or something. Oh, and 3) she might get her claws caught in it. I keep telling her to stop but she just burbles at me and carries on, usually followed by jumping off and running full pelt down the stairs, doing an impressive u-turn on the middle landing (three storey house) and running full pelt back up them. Although it has all gone quiet now so I think she may have it out of her system!

Where were we? Ah, yes, chocolate week. Which means that this week’s recipe had to be chocolate based (also the most popular recipes on this blog  tend to be chocolate based).

These biscotti were on the list for later in the month, but obviously I had to bump them up to this week. It only made sense.

I based them on the first biscotti recipe I ever put on this little space of mine, (there is only one other, so it isn’t as if there are masses to choose from), just adding some cocoa powder into the mix and taking out a couple of the other flavours.

I love the contrast of the green pistachios against the dark brown of the biscuit. It feels very autumnal. Side note – I had my first pumpkin spice latte last week. Not as good as the gingerbread one, in my opinion. I felt it needed more cinnamon and cloves, or spices in general. Disappointed. However I feel I need to give this homemade version a go.

See, I told you I was going to get distracted.

Right, this biscotti, what else can I say about it? The biscuit part isn’t very sweet, which I like, and the discovery of little chocolate chips is delightful, especially as they almost hide in the biscuit due to them being so similar in colour. You can eat them just as they are (which I may have done when transferring them from the tray to the container. Two just kind of disappeared), but the flavours really come to life when you dunk them in something, whether that be hot milk, coffee or, as it is chocolate week, hot chocolate.

And now, because my mind is wandering all over the place, I am thinking of a Christmas version – cranberry and orange? What do you think?