World Nutella Day ~ Nutella Biscotti

Not only is it Chocolate Friday today (though it's usually Dessert Friday the first Friday of the month), but it's World Nutella Day!!  What a fun celebration!

World Nutella Day is hosted by Sara from Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso.  This is actually the 4th one!  You really should stop over at the World Nutella Day site - there are so many great recipes there! 

 

Have you had Nutella before?  It's fantastic!  It is very dangerous though - hard not to keep eating it and it's definitely not low fat!  Or maybe you've tried another brand of chocolate hazelnut spread?  It's all good.

You might remember that I've participated in the Nutella Challenge at bell' alimento the past few months so I have been enjoying creating new Nutella recipes.

 

I created another one for you today!  It still scares me every time I try to do a recipe myself, but so far they have turned out well!  I really enjoy biscotti so I thought I should give Nutella biscotti a try.  At the same time, I wanted to test out using some healthier ingredients in my baking.  I'm happy with the result (and so is hubs)!

 

When you make biscotti, you separate it into two - I pressed almond slices into one half and sprinkled sparkle sugar onto the other half.

 

  

I decided this half needed to be drizzled with chocolate!

Nutella Biscotti

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

3 eggs

1 cup sugar (I used organic evaporated cane juice)

1/2 cup Nutella

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon almond extract

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 cup sliced almonds (optional)

2 tablespoons sparkle sugar (optional)

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment (or grease).

2.  In large bowl, beat together oil, eggs, sugar, Nutella, and extracts until well blended.  In a separate bowl, combine the flours and baking powder; stir into egg mixture to form heavy dough.  Divide dough in half.  On prepared sheet(s), form each piece into a roll about 12 inches long and 3 inches wide.  Press on sliced almonds or sprinkle sparkle sugar if desired.  (I chilled the dough for about 20 minutes at this point just to make sure it was firm enough.)

3.  Bake for 25-30 minutes in preheated oven.  Remove from baking sheet to cool on wire rack.  When cool enough to handle, slice each roll diagonally into 1/2 inch slices.  Place the slices cut side up on cookie sheet(s) without parchment.  Bake for 5 minutes.  Turn slices over and bake for additional 5 minutes.  Cool on wire rack. 

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After that you can drizzle on some melted chocolate if you like.  I also think these would be great with chocolate chips or vanilla chips mixed into the dough.  What do you think?  After the fact, I did see that there are a few Nutella biscotti recipes on www.nutelladay.com so you may want to check those out for other variations.

You can always celebrate World Nutella Day by making any of the other Nutella recipes I've made:

Mini Nutella Cheesecakes

 

Nutella Popcorn

  

Nutella Bites

  

Nutella S'mores Cake

 

And you thought eating Nutella from the jar with a spoon was the only way to have it!  Party with Nutella today!  Stop over at World Nutella Day for lots of creative Nutella recipes and check out bell' alimento for Nutella challenge recipes!  I'm also linking this up to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing beauty and Bedlam!

Let's keep celebrating by linking up some yumminess right here today!  If you have Nutella recipes, feel free to link them up, but you can also link up dessert recipes today, and of course any chocolate posts!  Come on - bring those links - the more the merrier!

Have a Nutellerrific day friends!  :)