BLACK SESAME AND DARK CHOCOLATE BISCOTTI.

The flavours of winter are very cool indeed. Especially chocolate.

Winter’s gifts seem never-ending. Chestnuts. Blood oranges. Grapefruit. Quince. Mandarin. Custard apples. Chocolate.

Wait, chocolate isn’t seasonal?

For me, it is. Because winter isn’t just about seasonal ingredients that grow slowly in the cold, and raise their heads into frost or fog. It’s a feeling as well, an emotional need, a draining, a hunkering-down. It’s dark, and beautifully so; in the same way that chocolate is darkly beautiful.

So my task this week is to insert dark chocolate into my cooking, because we need things that warm us up and not leave us cold. Think meaty, red-wine braises, Spanish cocido, French daubes – just add a couple of squares of chocolate towards the end of cooking time, let them melt, and stir them through.

For more immediate gratification, biscotti come to mind, dark with black sesame and random pockets of dark chocolate. Ooh, nice, let’s do it.

Black sesame seeds, by the way, are just unhulled white sesame seeds, and are adorably nutty, earthy, almost smoky. It’s good to toast them lightly before use. There is a slight bitterness from the hull, but there’s also a slight sweetness to them, which makes them pair dreamily with dark chocolate.

If you’re in the northern hemisphere and feel more like a cooling ice-cream, then here’s a simple recipe I developed a few years ago for delicious magazine. And my mate David Lebovitz has just posted an excellent recipe on his blog for the same thing, from Paris. Snap! (He runs a great newsletter that is worth subscribing to - it’s smart, serious-but-funny, with that wistful American-in-Paris vibe.)

A WORD ABOUT BISCOTTI.

They’re baked twice - the dough is first baked in logs, then sliced into biscuits and baked a second time to dry them out. It makes them tough, which I love. My favourite regional variation, cantuccini di Prato, is studded with almonds and traditionally served with a glass of vin santo, so you can dip the biscuit into the sweet wine to soften it. Very civilised.

This wintry variation is wonderful – dusky and darkly warming, but still crisp and crunchy, toasty and nutty. Dip into hot chocolate, coffee, tea or Black Sambuca, whatever lights your fire.

BLACK SESAME AND DARK CHOCOLATE BISCOTTI.

• 2 tsp black sesame seeds

• 250g plain flour, plus more for shaping

• 200g caster sugar

• 1 tsp baking powder

• Half tsp bicarb soda

• 50g ground almonds (almond meal)

• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten

• 1 tsp sea salt flakes, crushed

• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or orange flower water)

• 75 g dark chocolate (eg 70% Lindt), chopped

Heat oven to 180C (fan-forced 160C).

Toast the black sesame seeds in a dry pan and cool.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb soda, black sesame seeds, ground almonds, eggs, sea salt and vanilla extract.

Whiz until the mixture leaves the sides and forms a ball.

Turn out onto a floured bench and pat out with floured hands to a pizza shape.

Scatter the chopped chocolate evenly over the top, and gather up into a ball again, kneading it into a ball shape.

Divide dough into two, and with your hands, pat out each piece of dough into a neat log shape about 5 cm wide.

Place on a baking tray or trays lined with baking paper, with a little room for spreading on either side.

Bake for 30 minutes until lightly coloured and firm to the touch.

Remove the tray from the oven and reduce the temperature to 140C (fan-forced 120C).

Using a serrated bread knife, cut each log into 1.5cm slices (be careful, the melted bits of chocolate can burn), and lay the slices cut side down on the tray.

Bake for a further 10 minutes, then remove and leave to cool – they will harden as they cool.

Store in an airtight container, where they will last for up to three weeks. Makes 30 or so.

TIPPY TIPS:

If the dough is a bit wet and sticky, just flour your hands well as you shape it into a ball, and it will come together.

If you underbake the biscotti, they will be soft in the middle – which is actually rather nice. If you over bake, you will find yourself gnawing on them like a dog with a bone. Also rather nice. The ‘juuust right’ is a matter of experience and personal taste. (The rounded end slices will bake through first - try one, and if you like them that crunchy, bake the rest for another 5 minutes. If it’s too crunchy for you, pull the rest out and cool, you’re done.)

Beware: the melted chocolate can burn your fingers as you are slicing! Give it 5 minutes to cool – or take the tray outside in order to shoot it as I did, which turns out to be the perfect way to cool it down.

You’ll need one tray for the two logs, and another one to take all the sliced biscuits if you want to bake them at the same time. If you don’t have two trays, you’ll need to finish the baking one tray at a time but you probably worked that out already.

Thanks for dropping by! And thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for giving these 18 out of 20. Three hats!

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Thank you for sharing your culture, traditions, knowledge, spirit, art, music, humour and food traditions, allowing us all to experience a sense of belonging in this ancient land.