A Hear for Your Valentine!!

And for the Next even, A Heart for My Valentine. The event was brought to us by Kiersten of Mis En Place, and you can check it out here for the round up, a continuous progression as entries are submitted you can go here . It is a great idea, and I must say my mind was reeling with ideas. I was thinking dinner. Heart shaped pizza, Heart shaped calzone, Heart shaped Ravioli, Heart shaped steaks, ohh the possibilities of what I can make my man shaped like a heart. Then the other night we are talking, and he says "you know its been awhile since you have made Biscotti, I could really go for some good almond Biscotti". Oh my gosh, I can make Heart shaped Biscotti, YeS!! So I pull out my little Biscotti book, and find my almond recipe. Then I think, omg how do I make shaped Biscotti?? Traditionally, its shaped into a log, baked, then cooled for a few min, sliced and baked again. Baked Twice, how the Heck am I to make hearts?? SO I posted on the blog for thoughts on it, and was talking it over. Both people came up with the same idea. Shape it into a heart shaped log, then slice little hearts! So I think, ok maybe I test this, I make the dough, mmm dough its so tasty hehe. And I think Ok we are going to make a heart loaf. I get it shaped (and I so have to learn to take pics of the process, but sticky fingers tend to make me forget the camera ha-ha). SO Biscotti log is in the oven, I check it about 15 min into the baking process, and OMG its a log, not shape what so ever, it reformed itself into log shape. sigh.. that didnt work, apparently as it heats and bakes it expands and just feels in the spots. So now, I have wonderful almond Biscotti, yes its not heart shaped, but I made these and am posting them here to haha. So those would be my first batch of wonderful Chocolate covered Almond Biscotii. So Back to the Drawing board.
I went back and thought ok, the kind person to answer me also suggested instead doing Unscotti and cutting the dough before baking. I pulled out my trusty heart shaped cookie cutter. I made my dough. I pressed it out and began cutting wonderful little hearts out of the dough. I get them in the oven and set my timer. I check them 15min in to the process again, for fear of round shapes, and YEA!! they are still wonderful little hearts well not little but still wonderful!
And coated in Chocolate. (and of course Almonds and Chocolate are Aphrodisiacs ;) the hubby was well over powered last night thanks to DB teehee). Wonderful heart shaped Unscotti, crisp as they should be and oh so tasty!!
I will post the original recipe and the difference I did for the shape.

Almond Biscotti:

3/4 cup whole almonds
3 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
7/8 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt

Place nuts in a shallow pan and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 min. or until golden brown. Let cool. In a small bowl beat eggs, vanilla and almost extract with a wire whisk. In a mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Add egg mixture and mix until blended, about 1 min. Cut nuts into half or 3rds ( I coarsely chop mine). Divide dough in half*. On parchment covered baking sheet, pat out dough into two logs about 1/2 inch thick 1 1/2 inches wide, and 12 inches long, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Bake in the middle of a preheated 300 degree oven for 50 min or until golden brown. Transfer from baking sheet to a rack. Let cool 5 min. Place on cutting board. With a serrated knife slice diagonally at a 45 degree angle about 1/2 inch thick. Lay the slices flat on the baking sheet and return to a 275 degree oven for 20-25 min or until toasted, turning the over once to dry the other side. Store in a tightly covered container.

*Once dough is mixed, pat dough to about 1/4 inch thickness, cut out desired shapes and place on parchment covered baking sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 min. Watch time, they baked quicker than the logs. Remove and cool completely.

At this point, once either preferred style is completely cooled you can coat in melted chocolate. I did half semi sweet/ half dark chocolate.

Enjoy your Hearts!!