Every time I snack on a chocolate mint goodie I get swept away with what an earth-shattering good flavor set that is! From gelato to cookies, this is a relationship that is tried and true, but I don’t seem to cook up these flavors too often.
This hard, dunk-worthy biscotti came out as a perfect proportion of earthy dark chocolate to light breathy mint. Throwing in white chocolate chips helps throw in a fun bit of color and help distinguish the flavor by sight if you happen to have these biscotti co-mingled in a batch of chocolate friends.
My favorite way to get mint flavor into my cooking is with food grade essential oils. The nearby Nichol’s Nursery carries a selection of essential oils some of which are food grade to be used in making flavored sugars, cookies, ganache, and ice cream. Not all essential oils are food grade however, as some extraction processes use solvents that are not safe to introduce into our systems.
I have a chocolate biscotti recipe, copied from the December 2005 Food and Wine issue that served as the base for this rendering. So as to not have a bunch of cookies around the house I cut the recipe in half and in the process found what is the perfect measurement of peppermint essential oil for this batch size.
Chocolate Peppermint Polka Dot Biscotti
based on Michelle Meyers recipe in Food and Wine, Dec 2005
makes about 20 slices
Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients:
- 1 cup of flour
- 1/2 cup of cocoa, dutch
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Set this aside and combine in a mixer:
- 3/4 cup of brown sugar
- 2 Tbs of softened butter
Mix till the butter sugar combination is well incorporated. Then add while mixing:
- one whole egg
- one egg white
- 1 Tbs vanilla
- 3 drops of food grade peppermint essential oil
Scoop in the dry ingredients a bit at a time, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides and bottom once.
Add in 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips.
Using a spatula, scoop the batter out onto a silpat-ed cookie sheet. It will be sticky. Form the dough into a log using a spatula and lightly cocoa dusted fingers.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet half way through.
Remove and let cool. Using a serrated knife, slice 1/2 inch slices from the loaf, on a diagonal to ensure nice long slices. Lay the sliced cookies out on the cookie sheet and bake again at 200F for 30 minutes total (flip cookies over after 15 minutes) if hard cookies suitable for coffee dunking are desired.
Enjoy!
8 Comments
When I read “earth-shattering good flavor set” in conjunction with biscotti, I immediately thought not of chocolate-mint but of chocolate-orange — the best biscotti ever. I think Le Petit Gourmet used to make it, but I can’t remember. Haven’t had any in years.
Since I’m about to be kitchenless, I’m counting on you to take on this mission. Given the conversations we’ve had about the magic of chocolate and orange, I’m assuming you can’t resist. 
- Oh yes… orange and chocolate! Especially with plump candied orange peel chunks hiding in the cookie…
The mint combo strikes me as one that should be foremost in my mind when seeking out nibblies, but it surprisingly usually isn’t. Hence the wonderful surprise when ever I have mint strattiacello at Perugino. Chocolate-orange is already at the tip of my tongue. We discovered a newish favorite Puckler’s combo: Mandarin Chocolate with Galaxy… yum–McAuliflower
Ah the partnership of mint and chocolate as well as the orange/chocolate partnership,both are yummy, however, let me pose another biscotti flavor….espresso/dark chocolate! I just made a batch today and you can view them on my blog. They are not for the faint of palate…very rich with a dark bitter chocolatey almost burnt taste! What do you think?
espresso and dark chocolate are definitely a favorite!
Thanks for the cute marshmallow mention on your site! I must get that flavor guide going…–McAuliflower
I want to make these for Christmas presents. Two questions: 1. can I just use peppermint extract, and if so, how much; 2. Will parchment work for lining the cookie sheets?
I will also make my favorite cinnamon-sugar biscotti and wrap them in coffee mugs for christmas presents. Aren’t I domestic!
[...] If you love biscotti and chocolate then you are going to die for this delicious chocolate peppermint polka dot biscotti! Just take a gander at this recipe from Brownie Points Blog! [...]
YUM !! I would add some crushed candy cane/peppermint candy. OK this is a must make for this week. Thanks for the recipe!
[...] Recipe and post.. [...]
[...] Biscottis par Jocelyn McAuliflower sur Flickr recette ici. [...]
[...] Recipe and post.. [...]
