Peanut Butter-Chocolate Biscotti

Wow guys... I am so sorry I've been gone for so long! But I promise I have a good excuse... Dane and I just moved from our teeny little apartment into our big awesome house, so needless to say we've been a little busy! Between packing, moving, getting sick on the first day we were here, unpacking, taking finals, and working, I just haven't had the time or the energy to spend here. Still, I knew I'd be out for a little while with the move, but I never expected to be out for two whole weeks! But don't worry guys... I promise the silence is over.

It's been a hectic couple of weeks, but it's so nice to have a huge, amazingly cute kitchen to work in now! I'm more excited than ever to cook and bake now that I have such an inspiring space to do it in. Isn't it great?

But enough blabbering about the house... onto the food!

Immediately after we moved, we were without internet for about a week. And while it was kind of nice not having the distraction of facebook and youtube while we began unpacking, it was a little on the frustrating side because both of us had online finals to take during that week. Fate is always convenient, right? So, since my advanced patient monitoring final simply couldn't wait a week for a technician to make out to our new house, I spent one entire afternoon holed up in the coffee shop down the road working on it. And as I sat there contemplating the use of transcutaneous CO2 monitoring and munching on a tasty peanut butter biscotti, it hit me... I should make these at home!

And I had the perfect excuse to make some... my best friend Sydney and her new husband(!) Corey are both graduating from college this Friday, and I made them a little gift basket with some cute coffee mugs, a bag of coffee, and some cool hot chocolate that turns orange when you heat it up, and these biscotti seemed like just the thing to finish it off! The nice thing about making biscotti at home is that you can make them as hard or as soft as you want by simply varying the baking time during the second step... I, for one, am not a huge fan of having biscotti that threaten to break your teeth, so I went for middle ground with these. And even though I burned the bottoms just a little thanks to my new oven - which I'm quite certain is baking at a higher temp that it tells me it is - they were still very tasty dunked in a nice warm cup of coffee. I hope Sydney and Corey enjoy these as much as I did!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Biscotti
slightly adapted from Food Network.com
yields about 2 dozen biscotti

Ingredients
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
3/4 cup dry roasted peanuts
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chunks

Directions
1. Position racks evenly in the oven and preheat to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, swirling the pan occasionally. Continue to heat until the butter browns and develops a nutty aroma, about 5 minutes (be careful not to burn the butter, however). Let cool slightly.
3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer until pale and light, about 2 minutes. Continue to beat, and gradually add the sugar while beating. Slowly add the butter and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the peanut butter and mix until combined.
4. While mixing slowly, add the dry ingredients to the wet in 2 additions, mixing only until absorbed. Fold in the peanuts and chocolate pieces.
5. Divide the dough in half and put each portion in the center of a baking sheet. Shape the dough with slightly wet hands to form a log that is about 2 inches wide and 12 inches long. Bake until set and brown around the edges, 25-30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through for even cooking. Cool logs on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes.
6. Lower the oven temperature to 325. Carefully transfer the cookie logs to a cutting board. Using a long serrated knife, cut the cookies crosswise at a 45 degree angle into 1-inch thick cookies. Place cookies cut-side down on the baking sheets. Bake about 8 minutes, or until crisp. Carefully flip the cookies and bake 8 minutes more, or until browned. Allow to cool completely and serve. Store in an air-tight container for up to three days.