Arden & Amici Almond & Chocolate Chunk Biscotti review

Arden & Amici  have established themselves as the Italian experts, promising to "Bring Italy to your table" with their range of authentic biscuit and bakery products. Founded by two guys with a passion for food and travel, the company has managed to maintain the friendly rapport with its local suppliers that a small company can foster - Amici is Italian for friends. The cleverly designed Arden & Amici logo expresses this friendship, from the two A's entwined to the English oak and the Italian olive branch creating the Italian crest.

I have to admit, to begin with, I wasn't overly wowed when I received a box of their Almond & Chocolate Chunk Biscotti to review. I've tried biscotti in the past and found it rather bland, very dry and so hard, you risk breaking a tooth trying to bite a piece off ! I was impressed with the slightly rustic look of the Arden & Amici biscotti though - I love the fact that they are all different sizes rather than totally uniform, like most mass-produced cakes and biscuits.

They smelt lovely too so I was tempted to have a taste and with just one bite, they won me over. They are quite dry as that is the very essence of biscotti, but they don't have the sawdust-like consistency of other brands that I've tried and I could crunch through them with my gnashers intact ! The chocolate and almonds add a lovely depth of flavour and extra sweetness which makes them the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee or even a glass of sweet wine.

I had visions of dipping these in melted chocolate along with banana, strawberries and marshmallows as a fondue, but the whole packet seems to have mysteriously disappeared ! Madhouse Daddy discovered that they are also delicous spread with lashings of salted butter. There is also a divine-sounding recipe for Biscotti Chocolate Salami on the Arden & Amici website that I'd love to try.

Available at Tesco's & Waitrose, £2.49 for 180g

for more information : http://www.ardenandamici.com/ 

(Keep an eye on their Facebook page too - they have some fab giveaways on there)

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.