Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti and Chocolate Chunk Walnut Ice Cream

Yeah, it’s a long title but it tastes oh so good!

It was such a beautiful day yesterday that my thoughts immediately went to ice cream..and things to accompany said ice cream. Since I had been toying with the idea of making a biscotti for a while, I decided to see how hard it really was to make. When I googled “biscotti recipes”, I was amazed at the variation in methods for making the hard Italian cookie. But no one recipe really spoke to me (no, there are not voices in my head…just my gut instinct…whose name is Sylvia), so I decided to wing it (and cross my fingers that I wouldn’t burn down my kitchen).

I already knew I wanted to use chocolate and I also decided to throw in some pistachios I had left over from the weekend. But as I was getting out the chocolate bars and various other baking ingredients, I stumbled upon a small bottle of rosewater. I had forgotten I even had it, so I decided to throw it into the mix. The biscotti came out very well…the rosewater gave the chocolate more depth without being overpowering. And the cookie was crisp, but not hurt your jaw hard. It made for the perfect dipping stick for my Chocolate Chunk Walnut Ice Cream!

Biscotti:

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

4 tablespoons butter, softened

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon rosewater

1/2 cup pistachios

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a large baking sheet.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, nutmeg, baking soda and baking powder in a large bowl. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and rosewater thoroughly. Slowly add in the flour mixture until a dense “dough” is made (don’t worry, it’s supposed to look like this…it freaked me out a bit too). Remove the mixing bowl from the stand and fold in the pistachios. Turn the dough out onto the baking sheet and make two piles of it. Form two 12 inch log shapes out of the dough. To flatten and smooth out the top of the dough, place a piece of parchment paper over the logs and smooth out the dough (making sure to retain the log shape).

Place the logs in the fire…I mean oven for 25 minutes. Take the baking sheet out of the oven and allow the logs to cool slightly. When they are cool to the touch, cut the dough into lengthwise pieces (the width of the pieces are totally up to you), return them to the baking sheet and bake them for another 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before digging in.

Chocolate Chunk Walnut Ice Cream

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups heavy cream

1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into chunks

1/2 cup to 1 cup walnuts, chopped

Mix together the milk and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Add the heavy cream and the vanilla and stir until incorporated. Turn on your ice cream maker (follow the instructions for preparing the machine for use) and pour in the milk mixture. Allow the ingredients to churn for at least 25 minutes and then toss in the walnuts and the chocolate chunks. Churn for another 5 minutes (longer if you want a harder consistency of ice cream).

Scoop out the ice cream and garnish with a biscotti (or two…or three…no judgment here).