Chocolate Drizzled Banana Biscotti

It's happened again: my house smells like bananas. As much as I love bananas, I absolutely cannot stand the smell of them once ripened. Inconveniently, I also am unable to buy a normal amount of bananas at the grocery and usually end the week with a motley crew of mottled, speckled, and yes, smelly bananas. As a result, I may be posting a few more banana recipes this week. On a side note, hubby has also put me on a one grocery trip a week restriction. As much as I love to plan, I'm not great at planning meals and ingredients for the week so I end up frequenting the grocery store nearly every other day. Each of those "one ingredient" shopping trips ends up being a minimum of $40, so I suppose this restriction is a good thing.

On to the good stuff, today's banana recipe is a Chocolate Drizzled Banana Biscotti. Since I have finally overcome my fear of baking them, a biscotti dunked in a cup of hot tea has become an almost nightly treat for hubby and me. Hmm, how far we've come from our early days of dating when 'biscotti & tea' usually took the form of a couple rounds of beer :)

Like I mentioned, these babies are the perfect accompaniment for a cup of java or tea. The banana taste doesn't come through too strongly -- good when enjoying with a tasty beverage, but not so good when you're in the mood for something banana-y. Next time around, I may experiment with adding more bananas to the mix. As it is, these biscotti are still delicious and satisfy my craving for something sweet and crunchy. Oh, and the chocolate drizzle on top never hurts.

Chocolate Drizzled Banana Biscotti
Adapted from One Smart Cookie
Yield: 2 dozen biscotti (I like mine a little more thick, so I ended up with 1 dozen)

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large banana)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
semi-sweet chocolate chips or white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside
2. In a large bowl, combine oil, banana, egg and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Add flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir until just combined. The mixture will seem dry...very dry, but that's what helps give its crunch later on. You'll need to get in there with your hands to mix the dough until it comes together.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, divide in half and shape each piece into a log (about 8"). Place the logs 2-3" apart on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten each log into a rectangle about 3" wide.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until firm and cracked on top. Transfer logs to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Decrease oven to 275 degrees.
5. Once cooled, place the logs on a cutting board, and cut each log diagonally into 1/2"-3/4" thick slices with a serrated knife. Place the slices cut side down on the cookie sheet. Return to oven and bake an additional 20 minutes; flip the cookies over and bake another 20 minutes on the other side. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
6. Place chocolate chips in a ziploc bag. Place chocolate in microwave for 40 seconds. Continue in 10-15 second intervals until chips are melted. Snip off a tiny corner of the ziploc bag and drizzle over biscotti.