Great British Bake Off week 2 was biscuit week. Ergh. Seems I’m not alone in dreading biscuit week. I love eating biscuits but I’m rubbish at baking them. I thought I’d give biscotti a go this week as I’ve made them once before and they were awful – rock hard wedges that needed soaking in hot tea to render them edible.

Seems my 2nd attempt fared a little better. I used Paul Hollywood’s biscotti recipe as a guide and added cherry, almond and chocolate and they are delish, if I do say so myself. They’re very pale but crunchy and the cherry pieces are yummy tart pops alongside the creamy chocolate pieces.

Cherry & Chocolate Biscotti

250g plain white flour
½ tsp baking powder
250g caster sugar
2-3 medium eggs, beaten
50g dark chocolate chips
100g blanched almonds, chopped
100g dried cherries, chopped

Preheat oven to 160C (fan-forced) / 140C. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder) together and add the beaten egg a little at a time until it just comes together into a firm ball of dough. Add the choc chips, almonds and cherry and knead through by hand. Tip onto a floured surface and knead lightly for a minute or so. Split the dough into two then form each half into a long log roughly 30cm long. Place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment, with about 5cm between the logs as they do spread a little when cooking. Cook for minutes and take out to cool for 10 minutes. Cut using a serrated knife into about 1cm slices. Place back in the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes or until completely dry throughout, turning once halfway through cooking.

I froze the dough of the 2nd log. After the first bake I sliced it and popped some baking paper between slices before putting in a freezer bag. I’ll try baking them straight from the freezer and let you know how they cope with the freeze.