Italian almond and chocolate chip biscotti

This recipe has existed for centuries. Originally, the biscotti was made for travellers. The biscotti was double baked to remove all the moisture and hence increase its shelf life. The original recipe includes 2 parts flour, 1 part sugar, eggs to bind and almonds. Here I have changed the recipe a bit. Feel free to play around with the ingredients. What's more?? After double baking these biscuits you can store them in an air tight container for a really long time.

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup maida/self raising flour
3/4 cup castor sugar
100 gm dark/ milk chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vanilla essence/ 1 tablespoon almond extract
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup almonds blanched, peeled, roasted and cut in thin strips (see footnote on how to blanch almonds)
1 pinch salt

Method
In a bowl sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt. Leave aside. These are the dry ingredients for the biscotti. In another bowl whisk together the eggs and the sugar till creamy and forms ribbons. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix well. You can also whisk the mixture. At this point the mixture will be extremely thick. Add chocolate chips, vanilla essence and whisk again. Add almonds and mix well. Avoid whisking the almonds as it will break. The dough now is extremely thick now. Wet your hands with water and shape the dough in form of thick logs about 9X12". Cut the logs in equal sized round shapes. Make sure not to make extremely thin balls as they'll burn in the oven and extremely thick sized biscottis will not bake properly. Pre heat the oven to 180C. If you are not too sure about the thickness of the log you can also use a cookie cutter to make the biscotti. Bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. For the second baking lower the temperature to about 160C. Bake the cookies for about 5-7 minutes. You can also avoid the second baking if you like. Serve the cookies at room temperature.

PS: There are 2 methods to blanch the almonds. In the first method, soak the almonds overnight in water. They'll be soft in the morning and you can easily remove the skin. The 2nd method involves boiling the almonds in boiling water for a minute. Drain the almonds and rinse them 2 times in cold water. The almonds are blanched but be careful when peeling them. They get slippery. After blanching the almonds, roast them till you get the aroma. Let the almonds cool and cut them in strips.