Tag Archives: Biscotti

Pistachio Swirl Biscotti

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If you’re looking for a one bowl mix and scoop cookie, you’ve landed on the wrong page. But if you’ve been following me for a while, you already know that. I am passionate about beautiful bakes that also taste delicious. Sometimes that requires a bit of work. These are the most beautiful biscotti I have ever baked. They are a powerhouse of pistachio flavour, jammed with both pistachio butter and chopped pistachios.

The inspiration for these biscotti came from the July/August issue of Bake From Scratch Magazine. They did a swirled biscotti filled with Nutella. I’m not a big Nutella fan, so I decided to try it with pistachio butter. Pistachio butter is simply pistachios ground into a paste. Nothing else added. Much like almond butter or natural peanut butter. It’s not readily available at the supermarket, so you’ll need to order it online.

In my first round of testing, I used the biscotti dough recipe from Bake from Scratch, but I found it too dry. I switched to my favourite biscotti dough recipe for round two and the dough was perfect.

These are a bit more work than regular biscotti, because you have to roll the dough out into a rectangle.

When you spread the pistachio butter, be careful to leave a border, or it will ooze out the sides when you roll it up.

Check out this video to see how they come together.

A little etymology for you. The word biscotti is derived from the Latin biscotus, meaning twice baked or cooked. The dough is formed into a log for the first bake. Then the logs are sliced and put back in the oven for a second bake, to finish the baking. Traditionally, most recipes instruct you to turn the biscotti halfway through the baking process. This is so they bake evenly and get crisp on both sides. They are still quite fragile halfway through the baking time, and I inevitably break a few while trying to flip them over.

Here’s a pro tip that will change your biscotti making game. Just position a wire cooling rack on your baking sheet. Then arrange the slices on top of the cooling rack. This way, the heat of the oven can circulate around the biscotti and there is no need to flip the slices.

Not sure if you noticed the stunning shade of green of these slivered pistachios. I have not enhanced them at all with editing. They actually come that way! I ordered them online from Ayoubs. Most shelled pistachios have a skin on them. These have been blanched and that outer skin has been removed to reveal a gorgeous emerald green shade. That requires a great deal of labour, so they are not cheap, but worth it in an application like this. Of course you can also use regular shelled pistachios and it will still taste delicious, but they won’t be as vibrant a green.

Click here to print recipe for Pistachio Swirl Biscotti.

Cinnamon Almond Caramelized Crunch Biscotti

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Dorie Greenspan had the very clever idea to caramelize Rice Krispies in her book Chez Moi. She used them to make Crispy Topped Brown Sugar Bars. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to use them for, I just became obsessed with caramelizing Rice Krispies. Unfortunately I didn’t have any Rice Krispies in my pantry, but I found a box of Special K cereal, so I figured, close enough.

Caramelizing the Special K was simple. Boil sugar and water until it is a light amber colour. Mix in the cereal, stir to coat and continue cooking until the Special K becomes dark golden brown. Transfer to a baking sheet to cool.

As I snacked on the Special K (very addictive), I remembered an old recipe from my childhood that incorporated Special K cereal. It inspired me to create these Cinnamon Almond Caramelized Crunch Biscotti.

Biscotti, literally translated from Latin means “twice baked.” The dough is first formed into a log and baked until just starting to firm up. Once the dough cools, it is sliced, on a slight diagonal and baked for a second time, until crisp. Traditional Italian biscotti dough is made without butter, but I add butter to my dough. The biscotti are crunchy but not hard and dense.

Here’s a pro tip that will change your biscotti making game. Most recipes instruct you to turn the biscotti halfway through the baking process so that they bake evenly and get crisp on both sides. To skip flipping the biscotti, position a wire cooling rack on your baking sheet. Then arrange the slices on top of the cooling rack. This way, the heat of the oven can circulate around the biscotti and there is no need to flip the slices. Give the biscotti a generous sifting of cinnamon sugar before they go back into the oven for their second bake.

The biscotti will keep well in an airtight container for a few weeks, or for them into the freezer for longer storage.


Click here to print recipe for Cinnamon-Almond-Caramelized-Crunch-Biscotti-1Download

Dried Cherry, Coconut White Chocolate Biscotti

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These biscotti are adapted from a very old recipe, in the now defunct Gourmet Magazine (a moment of silence please!!). The original recipe used dried cranberries and was dipped in white chocolate. I decided to switch it up with dried cherries, used chopped white chocolate in the dough, instead of dipping them and added shredded coconut because everything tastes better with coconut!

I first posted a version of these biscotti almost 10 years ago, in 2010. While the recipe has stood the test of time, my image from 10 years ago (see below), has not! I find it rewarding to look back and see my progress over the years.

Traditional biscotti is made with eggs and no additional fat. This recipe adds butter which keeps them a bit soft and chewy in the centre. If you like a crunchier biscotti, just bake them for longer. These are perfect cookies for mailing as they stay crunchy for a long time. They are also perfect for freezing and pulling out when you need a quick sugar fix.

The dough is formed into a loaf and baked until it just begins to set. Then it is cooled and sliced and baked a second time, until crunchy.

Click here to print recipe for White-Chocolate-Coconut-Dried-Cherry-Biscotti-Download



Cookie Butter Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Biscotti

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stacked up 625 D sqBefore we get down to biscotti business, can we just chat for a few minutes about the PBS series “The Great British Baking Show“. Is anybody else as obsessed with with it as I am? I can’t seem to get enough of it. These are supposed amateur bakers who are blowing my mind with their sweet skills. Plus, the drama and controversy is really quite riveting to watch. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills have nothing on these Brits!

I was totally “Team Martha” until sadly, she was eliminated last week, Only 17 years old and already so accomplished. Creative, artistic and cute as a button, I predict big things ahead for her.

OK, now onto more important matters, Cookie Butter Biscotti! When I mentioned to my husband that I was planning to blog about biscotti this week he got very excited. Then I had to gently break it to him that I wasn’t planning to make those biscotti, but a new recipe instead, since I already posted about those biscotti already a few years ago. “Why bother making a different kind of biscotti, when your white chocolate, dried cherry, coconut biscotti are the ultimate?” he asked me. Not sure he really gets the concept of a food blog. You can’t post the same recipe over and over again. Oh well, I was convinced that once he crunched into one of these sweet and spicy babies, he’d come around.

tied up 2The inspiration for this recipe came from my sister Bonnie. She is always sending me recipe ideas and photos. The original recipe was for peanut butter chocolate biscotti. But since I had lots of cookie butter in the cupboard, left over from making these, I decided to substitute cookie butter (speculoos spread) for the peanut butter.

Cookie Butter is just ground up Speculoos or Biscoff cookies (a gingersnap type Belgian cookie), sugar and oil. If you live in the U.S., Trader Joe’s carries their own brand. In Canada, the Lotus brand is available at Loblaws.trader-joes-and-lotus

 

I thought that the buttery rich flavour of toasted hazelnuts would really complement the spicy ginger in these biscotti. And of course, bittersweet chocolate is always invited to any cookie party.hazelnutsHazelnuts come with a thin skin on them, which can taste bitter. Removing the skin is simple. Toast hazelnuts on a baking sheet in the oven 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly coloured and skins are blistered. Wrap nuts in a kitchen towel and let steam 1 minute. Rub nuts in towel to remove loose skins. Don’t worry about any stubborn skins that don’t come off. Let cool completely.

The dough gets divided into thirds and using your hands, form 3 flat logs. forming logs 2The logs spread quite a bit, so give each log its own baking sheet. Here’s a before and after shot of the first bake.
before first bakingafter first bakingCool the logs for at least 30 minutes and then slice on the diagonal into 1/2 inch thick biscotti.slicing biscottiBack into the oven for a second bake (Hence the name biscotti – or twice baked!) ready for second bakingWhile the cookies are baking, melt some bittersweet chocolate and grind up some Speculoos or gingersnap cookies. crushing speculoos cookies

dipping
Click here to print recipe for Cookie Butter Hazelnut and Chocolate Chunk Biscotti.tied up 1

 

 

 

Snap Crackle Pop Biscotti

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One of the things I love best about blogging is connecting with other like-minded food obsessed folks. These are my people, they speak my language. Not only do they share my passions, but they share their ideas and always give credit and a huge shout-out of love and support to those that inspired them. It’s a wonderful freaking mutual admiration society. Food bloggers are generous of spirit. They are excited by what they discover and rather than hoard this new knowledge, they want to share it.

The inspiration for this blog came from Jayne Maynard’s blog, What’s for Dinner. She blogged about these crispy crunch chocolate chip cookies she had created. Jayne was inspired by a chocolate chip cookie with Rice Krispies in it that a bakery in her hometown made. She could not seem to get the cookies quite as crispy as they did. it was bugging her. Then she had her eureka moment when she remembered Christina Tosi, the genius behind Momofuko Milk Bar, and her brilliant creation of “The Crunch”.

Basically, Christina takes different cereals (Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes or Captain Crunch or Fruity Pebbles), mixes them with milk powder, a bit of sugar, melted butter and salt and bakes it at a low temperature which yields a perfect balance of sweet, salt and caramelized crunch in every bite. The melted butter acts as the glue to hold it all together and the milk powder coats everything and adds a bit of extra sweetness. She uses “The Crunch” as an addition to pie crusts, cookies, cakes and every other imaginable sweet out there.

Jayne mixed up a batch of “Crispy Crunch” (Rice Krispies baked with milk powder, melted butter, sugar and salt) added it to some chocolate chip cookie dough and arrived at the cookies she was dreaming about.

I was curious to see what would happen if I added the crunch to something already crunchy, like Biscotti. Would Crunch + Extra Crunch be amazing?

I started by mixing up a batch of Rice Krispie Crunch.

Golden brown and gorgeously caramelized once out of the oven, this is some pretty addictive stuff.

Butter and sugar get creamed together. Add eggs and vanilla.

Flour, baking powder and salt round out the dry ingredients. I added some toasted slivered almonds along with the Rice Krispie Crunch, because, really, you can never have enough crunch! This is a wet and sticky dough. You will need some extra flour for your hands and counter as you shape logs. I formed 4 logs, each about 9 inches long, 1 inch wide and 1 1/2 inches high. Place 2 logs on each parchment lined baking sheet.

After 25 minutes in a 300° F oven, they will look like this:

Turn down the oven to 275° F and let biscotti loaves cool for about 30 minutes. Slice on the diagonal about 1/2 inch wide, using a serrated knife. Place cut side up back onto parchment lined baking sheet. Dust with cinnamon and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes.

While traditional biscotti typically contain very little fat, this recipe uses a full cup of butter. They are firm and crisp like biscotti should be, but not at all dense and heavy. Because of the extra butter, they have a wonderful light and airy texture.

Click here to print recipe for Snap Crackle and Pop Biscotti.

Holiday Baking Day 1: Dark Chocolate and Pecan Biscotti Slabs

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My youngest sister once told me that the sight of 24 pounds of unsalted butter in her freezer makes her very happy. I have to admit, the same is true for me. Although in my case, the butter would all be neatly stacked in orderly rows. In my sister’s freezer, more like haphazardly thrown in wherever they would fit. Now, that’s not a dig at my sister. It’s just part of her unique charm.

Why, you may be asking, would these sisters need 24 pounds of unsalted butter in their freezer at any given time? Do we operate a bootleg bakery out of our homes? No. Were we children who came from poverty? No, as a matter of fact, we grew up in a middle-class suburb of Toronto. I guess you could say we come by our hording honestly. Our mother stockpiled our freezer with Swanson’s T.V. dinners and chicken pot pies, Sara Lee Banana Cakes and Highliner fish sticks. We hoard butter because you never know when the urge to bake will hit, and you must never be caught unprepared. We both love to bake. We both find baking an extremely creative outlet and a way of showing our love to those around us.

Rather than shop for gifts for all the people in my life for whom I am grateful, I decided many years ago to bake. And somehow, over the years my gratitude has grown to include a circle of about 40 people! I usually bake about 7 or 8 different kinds of treats and package them all up in a beautiful unique container.  There are a core 4 items I bake that must be included each year. If I leave any of them out, there may be a mutiny. These treats include Peanut Butter Bark, Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, Lemon Coconut Cookies and Gingerbread Snowflakes.

This year I added a few new items to the mix. The first are Biscotti Slabs. These are a creation of Montreal baker Marcy Goldman. Essentially, you take a typical biscotti batter, bake it in a loaf pan, chill, slice, re-bake and voilà: a new product. Slabs of crisp cookie-like biscotti with a delicious middle layer of chocolate and pecans and a glittering topping of cinnamon sugar. These are serious biscotti. Perfect for breakfast with a cafe latte. Anyone I have ever offered them to looks at them and says, “Oh, these are huge, I’ll just have a small piece.” They break off about a third, nibble on it quietly and then come back and finish the rest off. Sweet, but not too sweet, crunchy and quite addictive.

These biscotti begin with melted rather than softened butter. Marcy uses melted butter in many of her recipes. Not quite sure why this is. If you are melting the butter in the microwave, save yourself a lot of grief and a huge butter explosion and cover butter with a sheet of waxed paper first!

Butter and sugar are creamed together. Be sure to take the time to do this properly. It takes at least 4-5 minutes of creaming. It should look like this when it is done.

Eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder and salt are added to complete the batter.

Here is my foolproof technique for lining the baking pan. No greasing required and the biscotti slab will lift out very easily without any sticking.

Toasted pecans and bittersweet chocolate are chopped up to make the biscotti middle layer.

Mix together some cinnamon and sugar.

Then it’s time for assembly. Spread half the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Use wet fingers to spread it evenly. Spread the chocolate and pecan topping evenly over the batter. Sprinkle on half the cinnamon sugar mixture. Top with remaining batter and finish with a dusting of remaining sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Bake for about 50 minutes. Let cool completely and remove loaf from pan. Wrap well in foil and freeze for about an hour. Then slice into slabs and bake a second time.

Arrange slabs on baking sheet and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until crisp and slightly browned. They will continue to firm up as they cool.

Click here to print recipe for Dark Chocolate and Pecan Biscotti Slabs

Breakfast Biscotti (also known as Mrs B’s Mandelbroit)

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These are a biscotti unlike any other you may have tried.  Traditionally, biscotti are hard, sturdy cookies, made for dunking into coffee or tea.  These biscotti are firm but crisp and quite crunchy and airy all at the same time.  They are delicate and will shatter if you are not careful handling them.  It is a lot like eating a crunchy cloud, if you can imagine that.  I call them breakfast biscotti because they are made with Special K cereal.  That’s what gives them their unique texture.

This recipe comes from a childhood friend’s mother (Mrs .B).  I was friends with the daughter of the family and my sister was friends with the son.  Working as a tag team, we managed to wear Mrs B down until she gave us the recipe.

Biscotti, in Italian, means twice cooked.  The cookies are first formed into a log, cooked until slightly firm, allowed to cool, then sliced into thin cookies and baked a second time until firm.  All cultures around the world have their own form of this cookie.  Jewish bakers haveMandelbroit (meaning almond bread), the English have their “Rusks”, in France they are called “Croquets de Carcassonne”, in Greece, “Paxemadia” and in the Ukraine they are called “Kamishbrot”.

These biscotti keep well in an airtight container for several weeks.  I have almost managed to convince myself that they are a complete and healthy breakfast!

The dough mixes up quickly in the kitchenaid.  Oil and sugar are creamed until light.  Next the eggs are added.  This is followed by the dry ingredients and finally, the Special K.

 The dough is quite sticky, but do not be tempted to add more flour.  Scrape out dough onto a heavily floured counter and knead lightly.  Divide dough into 4 and then form logs.  Bake logs for about 30 minutes until slightly firmed up.
After logs have cooled for at least an hour, slice on the diagonal.  A serrated knife or chinese cleaver works well for this.  Sprinkle with cinnamon, turn slices cut side up and return to the oven for second baking.

Breakfast Biscotti

To print recipe, click here.

makes about 60

 

3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup shortening
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups Special K cereal
¾ cup slivered almonds, toasted and cooled

cinnamon for sprinkling on half-baked cookies

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  In an electric mixer, beat together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add oil, shortening and vanilla and mix until well blended.  Add salt, flour, baking powder, special K and almonds.  Mix just until blended.
  2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Divide dough into 4 pieces. The dough will be quite soft and sticky.  Flour your work surface well so that you can handle the dough more easily.  Roll each piece of dough into a log, about 2 inches wide and about 8 inches long.  Place two logs on each baking sheet and brush off any excess flour with a dry pastry brush.  Bake for about 20 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through.
  3. Remove baking sheets from the oven and let logs cool for about 30 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 275 degrees F.  Place each of the cooled logs on a cutting board and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.  Using a serrated knife, cut into ½ inch diagonal slices.  Arrange slices on parchment lined baking sheets, cut side down.   Bake for about another 40-45 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through.  The mandelbroit will be a bit soft when you take them out of the oven, but they will harden upon cooling.  These freeze very well and our family likes them even better frozen.

White Chocolate Cranberry Coconut Biscotti

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Yesterday morning at 5:45 am I received an e-mail request to bake for a charity auction/fundraiser being held this Saturday night.  You may be wondering why I was awake so early. It wasn’t on purpose.  It’s just that I keep forgetting to put my blackberry on “silent” mode before I go to sleep, so the beep of an incoming message woke me.  The request was from the Lanark County Therapeutic Riding Program.  I immediately hit reply and said YES!!  My speedy, enthusiastic (well, as enthusiastic as I can be at 5:45 am) reply was due to two reasons.

The main reason I replied yes is that my son, who has cerebral palsy, has been riding with them for over 6 years.   When he began he could not even sit up on the horse.  Now he is trotting.  He has developed increased balance, flexibility and coordination over the years.  But more importantly, he has gained a feeling of great independence and freedom as well as tremendous pride in his accomplishments.  I never could have imagined a day when I would see him trotting down a country road on a horse.  It is a joy to behold.

The second reason for my speedy acquiescence is that I love any excuse to bake, especially when I know the baking will be leaving my home and moving out of harm’s way (Harm in this case, being my mouth!)

I knew right away what I wanted to bake.  I was planning to bake on Thursday and the event was not being held until Saturday, so it had to be something that didn’t get stale quickly.  Biscotti would be the perfect thing to make.  They keep well for several weeks, although they never seem to last that long around here.  The inspiration for this biscotti recipe came from the now defunct Gourmet Magazine (a moment of silence here please!!).  The original recipe was for cranberry biscotti dipped in white chocolate.  I decided to add white chocolate chunks to the dough instead of dipping them.  I also added coconut to the dough because coconut makes everything taste better!   Unbeknownst to me, my sister Bonnie made the exact same changes to the recipe.  We laughed when we discovered what the other had done.

Oh, and I had a third reason to be excited to bake today!  I would get to try out my new Beater Blade for my Kitchenaid mixer.  The company claims that this blade, ” … virtually eliminates hand-scraping the bowl and batter build-up on the blades. Ingredients are thoroughly incorporated ensuring foolproof mixing and baking preparation.” After softening the butter, I set to work creaming the butter and sugar.  I was very impressed with the new blade.  No scraping down was needed.  I love it when a product delivers like it promises.

Then time to add the rest of the ingredients.

Biscotti is Italian for “twice baked”.  First the dough is formed into logs and baked.  Then the logs are sliced and put back into the oven for a second baking.  This is a wonderful dough to work with, so pliable and malleable.  Forming the logs is simple.

The logs are brushed with beaten eggwhite and baked for about 25 minutes.  Then they cool for about an hour.  I discovered that using a cleaver works really well for slicing the logs.  I got an inexpensive one from Ikea.  I like to slice them on the diagonal for really long biscotti.  They go back into the oven for a second baking.  They will be a bit soft when you remove them from the second baking but will firm up as they cool.

Click here to print recipe for White Chocolate Coconut Cranberry Biscotti.