Biscotti Hot Chocolate Sticks (with Marshmallows)

How many times have you dipped a cookie into a hot beverage, then removed it to find that half of it has disappeared. You drink has effectively eaten the cookie for you. You then find yourself with only half a cookie and a ruined drink (unless you want to choke on the soggy crumbs floating around at the bottom of your mug). 

What you need is a biscotti. Not the soft, cakey type, the crispy crunchy type with chocolate chips which melt when you dip it into your tea. Yes, perfect, almost.

One problem, who wants to be boring with normal hot chocolate made in a pan? 

There's another way, a cooler way. Hot chocolate on a stick! But wait a second, that means you have to go and get lollipop sticks  (or just take a handful next time you get a Starbucks, just fyi), and then you'll probably sit down after making you hot chocolate and realise that you got really bored while heating the milk and managed to eat the biscotti while you were waiting. Plus then you have to go get the marshmallows which you forgot the first time. 

You never realised before how stressful hot chocolate making is, did ya?

The only option I had was to combine biscotti, hot chocolate on a stick and marshmallows

Cue Biscotti Hot Chocolate On a Stick (with marshmallows)!

They are perfect last minute Christmas gifts, plus they're pretty easy to make. You can use different types of chocolate (milk, white, dark, mint etc.), add spices or dip them in chocolate. There are many variations on biscotti too, change the nuts, get rid of chocolate chips (but please don't), change the flavours, add cocoa, blah blah blah. I just stuck with almond and chocolate chip because basically everybody I know likes it.

See, your hot chocolate problems are solved! Well, actually you have to make these first, so get to it!

Biscotti Hot Chocolate Sticks (with Marshmallows)

Almond Chocolate Chip Biscotti 

slightly adapted from Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies

2 cups (9 oz / 260g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (8 oz / 220g) sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/ tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
3 large eggs
2 tbsp amaretto (or 1 1/2 tsp almond extract and 1 tbsp rum)

2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup (3 oz / 85g) almonds , toasted then roughly chopped

1/2 cup (4 oz / 110g) chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).

Line a 10.5 x 7 inch pan with parchment paper (if you want more rectangular biscotti), or a cookie tray (for a more traditional biscotti shape).

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and slat in a large bowl. In a small bowl or jug, quickly whisk together the eggs, amaretto (almond extract and rum) and vanilla with a fork. Add this to the flour mixture along with the almonds and chocolate chips. stir together using the fork until fully combined. 

Either pour the mixture into the baking pan, then spread and flatten with wetted hands; Or scrape the dough out onto the cookie tray and shape with wetted hands into a 9.5 - 10 x 6 inch log.

Bake for 50 minutes, remove from the pan / cookie sheet to a cooling rack and then let it cool completely (you don't want the chocolate chips to be all melty and spread everywhere when you cut the biscotti).

Cut the log straight across, not diagonally, into 20, 1/2 inch thick slices. Place them cut side down onto a lined cookie tray. Bake again at 300 degrees F (150 degrees F) for 20 minutes, turn them over so the other cut side is now face down on the tray, and bake for a further 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

For the Hot chocolate Mixture

adapted from here

12 oz (325g) dark chocolate

3/4 cup (185 ml) single cream

1/4 cup (1 oz / 28g) cocoa powder

3/4 cup (2.5 oz / 75g) powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 to 1/2 cup (4-8 tbsp) mini marshmallows, cut in half

Line a 11 x 3 to 4 inch loaf pan with cling film. (or what ever size loaf pan you have)

Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Take the bowl off the pan and stir in the cream. 

Stir in the cocoa powder, powdered sugar and salt. Scoop the mixture into the lined pan and push in the mini marshmallows, whilst spreading it and smoothing it. Push in the biscotti into the chocolate mixture, leaving about 3/4 inch between them. 

Let cool and set for about 2 hours. 

Using the cling film, remove the whole thing from the tin. Peel off the cling film and use a sharp knife to cut the mixture into squares, with a biscotti in the middle of each square. Wrap them individually in cling film or plastic bags.

To make the hot chocolate, 

Heat a medium mug-full of milk in a small pan until steaming, pour into a medium mug. Put the biscotti hot chocolate stick into the milk, just up to the top of the chocolate cube (basically with as little of the biscotti in the milk as possible). Stir until the chocolate melts off of the biscotti, remove the biscotti and leave the mug for a little while to let the chocolate melt completely before stirring it into the milk using your biscotti or a spoon..