Clean eating chocolate biscotti

Clean eating what?!

Yeah. Chocolate biscotti.

This is the first time I've made biscotti, so I can't truly compare the "clean" version to a standard recipe, but let me just say that when I was blog-browsing the other day and came across a biscotti recipe that called for more than a full stick of butter, I was content to let this recipe be my one-and-only. No oil or butter here! Plenty of flavor and crunch, though. Works for me.

Mix up a batch of these to go along with your spiced hot chocolate! These biscotti are more crumbly when fresh, but still not too hard to bite into after they've had a chance to age slightly.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti
from The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno
serves 15 (haha...)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup raw unsalted whole almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped, divided**
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
2 tsp instant coffee crystals (I use one little instant coffee "tube")
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup Sucanat
1 whole egg
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp grated lemon zest (I've never used this)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Place 1/4 cup of the almonds**, both flours, cocoa powder, coffee crystals, baking soda, and salt in a food processor. Process for a few minutes until the almonds are finely ground. Transfer mixture to a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

3. Combine sucanat, egg, egg white, extracts, and zest (if using) in a blender and process until foamy, about 3-4 minutes. My bullet-style blender works just beautifully for this.

4. Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture. Add remaining chopped almonds and mix well.

5. Divide dough into two (very sticky!) lumps on the baking sheet. Shape into logs--wet your hands a bit if the dough is sticking too much.

6. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, reduce heat to 300*, and let logs cool 10 minutes.

7. Cut each log on a diagonal into ten pieces. Spread slices out on baking sheet and return to oven for another 20 minutes. Cookies should be dry to the touch.

8. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

**Rather than messing with the food processor, I've found that using 1/4 cup almond meal in Step 2 and mixing by hand, then crushing another 1/4 cup raw almonds by hand for use in Step 4, is less mess and just as effective.