Search Results for: 2008/04/14/almond-biscotti-and-hazelnut-dried-cherry-biscotti

hot chocolate mix

12/22/2012 By bridget

I’m not usually much of a Christmas baker, but I got this grand idea last month that I should send my in-laws packages of cookies for Christmas. I sort of had a bad feeling about it, like it was probably going to end up stressing me out, but once I get a hold of an idea that sounds fun, I have a hard time letting go. And so it was that a week and a half before Thanksgiving, I was mixing, forming, and freezing dough for Christmas cookies.

I didn’t have much of a plan from the beginning. I love this bourbon pound cake recipe and thought it would ship well. I knew I wanted something fruity and something chocolately. Hazelnut dried cherry biscotti covered the fruit requirement, but the decorated sugar cookies I couldn’t resist adding wouldn’t help with the chocolate. And then I remembered this hot chocolate mix recipe, which I first made several years ago.

It’s the perfect thing to ship off to northeastern Ohio in December, sure to be appreciated through the upcoming snowy months. There’s no worry about breaking in transit, a relief after individually wrapping 28 treat bags containing sugar cookies in bubble wrap. And it’s easy, a relief after spending the greater part of a weekend decorating elaborate sugar cookies (that had better not break in transit). I think it’s safe to say that my cookie packages were a great success – assuming those 28 bubble-wrapped sugar cookies arrive safely, at least.

One year ago: Mushroom Farro Soup
Two years ago: Gingerbread Cake
Three years ago: Brussels Sprouts Braised in Cream
Four years ago: Candied Orange Peel

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Hot Chocolate Mix

Makes about 36 servings

To make vanilla sugar, mix a vanilla bean into the sugar and let it set for a few days.

I used 2 cups of sugar, but the mix was two sweet for me, so I’ve reduced it in the recipe. It might depend on how sweet your chocolate is too; mine was 72% cocao.

The amount of espresso powder you add might depend on who you plan to serve the hot chocolate to: more adds complexity and cuts the sweetness, but less is more appropriate for kids.

20 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1½ cups (10.5 ounces) vanilla sugar
2¼ cups unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
1-3 teaspoons instant espresso powder

Grind chocolate in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the remaining ingredients and process until mixed. Transfer to an airtight container. To serve, mix 3-4 tablespoons into 8 ounces of hot milk.

Filed Under: chocolate, dessert, drinks, winter/holidays

chocolate hazelnut biscotti

06/14/2011 By bridget

I went through a phase a couple years ago, when I was unemployed and had plenty of free time to bake, where I made a lot of biscotti for Dave. He doesn’t usually like to bring treats to work to share with coworkers, but he got in the habit of bringing a couple extra biscotti every day to give to his boss.

His boss was impressed with the almond biscotti. Then a week later, I made the same recipe, substituting hazelnuts and dried cherries for the almonds. But I was experimenting with different methods for the second bake, and they didn’t get as crunchy.

Dave’s boss said: “Too much egg, I think. Last week’s was better, almost perfect; this week’s needs work.”

Huh? Too much egg? He might be an expert in contaminant migration, but he doesn’t know squat about biscotti.

I made these shortly after the batch with “too much egg.” Mindful of recent complaints about biscotti that was too soft in the middle, I erred on the crunchy side and left the biscotti in the oven, with the heat turned off and the door propped open, for half an hour after the recommended baking time.

There were no complaints this time, although I did think they were a little crumbly and difficult to roll into logs (maybe they needed more egg?). Not only were the biscotti hard enough to dip into coffee, but the rich chocolate flavors were brought out by the dark espresso overtones. Jacque chose this recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie, and she has it posted.

One year ago: Dressy Chocolate Cake
Two years ago: Honey Peach Ice Cream
Three years ago: Cappuccino Cream Puff Rings

Filed Under: breakfast, chocolate, cookies, dessert, italian, tuesdays with dorie

lemon ricotta strawberry muffins

04/21/2011 By bridget

Sometimes it bothers me that I can’t buy any locally produced food. I get to thinking that if food can’t be grown here, maybe we shouldn’t live here. Clearly it’s an unenvironmental place to live if everything from greens to beef to beans has to be shipped here.

Then I remember that I’m here for an environmental reason. I work for a radioactive waste disposal site. And it’s here because there aren’t a lot of people here. Do you want radioactive waste stored anywhere near your city? Probably not. (Although the truth is that most of the locals here appreciate the repository’s presence, as it brings good jobs to the area and has had no environmental effect.) And there aren’t a lot of people here because stuff doesn’t grow here.

The upshot of this is that I have no qualms about buying California strawberries or Florida peaches. If I tried to follow a 100-mile diet in southern NM, we’d have to survive on pecans. Even the state’s prized green chiles are grown almost 200 miles away. I draw the line at Chilean berries, but anything from the US or Mexico is fair game.

If you try to eat local and you live farther north, you probably don’t have strawberries yet. When you do, here’s a great way to use them. These light, tender muffins are fragrant with lemon and studded with sweet berries. We enjoyed them while sitting outside in our sunbaked parched desert.

One year ago: Cauliflower Cheese Pie with Grated Potato Crust
Two years ago: Pan-Roasted Asparagus
Three years ago: Hazelnut Dried Cherry Biscotti

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Lemon Ricotta Strawberry Muffins (adapted from Mollie Katzen via Apple a Day)

Makes 12 muffins

I substituted ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour for an equal amount of the all-purpose flour.

2 cups (9.6 ounces) all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup (3.5 ounces) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup ricotta cheese
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1½ cups strawberries, chopped

1. Heat the oven to 350ºF. Spray the bottoms only of a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

2. In a medium bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar. Whisk in the eggs, ricotta, buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice, and butter. Pour the ricotta mixture into the flour mixture and fold until the flour is evenly dispersed but not completely mixed in. Add the strawberries and fold until the flour is moistened (some lumps are okay) and the strawberries are evenly distributed.

3. Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean, 18-22 minutes. Set the pan on a rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes, then use a thin-bladed knife to remove the muffins from the pan.

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, cheese, citrus, fruit, quick bread, spring

almond biscotti

01/30/2011 By bridget

When faced with three bowls of Bolognese and a spoon, Dave declared them all good. “Different, but good.” Which is better? “I don’t know. They’re all good.” Carne adovada? “They all taste the same.” Sugar cookies? “They need frosting.”

I can’t really complain about having someone to cook for who appreciates everything I make (unless it has olives), but feedback isn’t Dave’s strongpoint. He used to tell me that he could only give a good opinion if he was served similar dishes side-by-side, which started this whole thing, but not even that always works.

Unless it concerns almond biscotti. I have made at least four almond biscotti recipes, over the course of well over a year, and Dave has unequivocally identified his favorite. It was the first I tried, and nothing else has ever lived up. He loves these because they’re just crunchy enough to dip into his coffee without getting soggy, but not so crisp that they’re a challenge to bite into.

I like them because the recipe is simple to mix up and is easily adaptable. Usually I use slivered blanched almonds, but if I need to use up sliced almonds, those work just fine as well. If I’m in the mood for variety, I can add different nuts and dried fruit, although if I do, Dave will be disappointed. Pure, unadulterated almond biscotti is one of Dave’s favorites, up there with banana cream pie and salmon pesto pasta. At least this recipe is.

One year ago: Tartine’s Banana Cream Pie
Two years ago: Crispy Baked Chicken Strips
Three years ago: Mu Shu Pancakes

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Almond Biscotti (adapted from Bon Appetit via Smitten Kitchen)

There’s no need to toast the nuts before mixing the dough; they’ll brown in the oven.

You’ll only use a bit of the egg white, plus I dislike using only one part of an egg. Instead, I steal just a bit of egg white from one of the eggs that gets mixed into the dough to use for the egg wash instead of using a separate egg white.

1 large egg white
3¼ cups (15.6 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 large eggs
10 tablespoons (1¼ sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 teaspoon salt
1½ cups (10.5 ounces) sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or orange liqueur
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 cup slivered or sliced almonds

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Whisk the single egg white until frothy. In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, mix the flour and baking powder.

2. In a large pot over medium-low heat, heat the butter just until melted. Remove the pot from the heat; stir in the sugar and salt. Stir in the eggs, one at time; add the extract, liqueur, and zest. Slowly mix in the flour mixture, then the almonds.

3. Divide the dough in half. On the prepared baking sheet, shape each half into a log 2-inches across and ¾-inch high. Brush with the egg white. Bake for 30 minutes, until puffed and golden.

4. Carefully transfer the logs to a cooling rack (I use two large spatulas for this); cool for 30 minutes.

5. Slice each log on the diagonal into ½-inch thick cookies. Lay half of the cookies cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake 11 minutes; remove the pan from the oven and, using tongs, turn each cookie over onto its other cut side. Bake 7 minutes, until the edges are browned. Transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

I have blogged about this recipe before. At the time, I could only tell you that they were good. Now I can tell you that they are the best.

Filed Under: alcohol, citrus, cookies, dessert, favorites, italian, nuts, recipe comparisons

brown sugar cookies

04/15/2010 By bridget

Do you know where the name for my blog came from? I mean, besides Dave kind of just blurting it out and me realizing it was perfect. I was looking for something that at least somewhat related to my science background – I kind of wanted to be discussing not just the outcome of recipes, but also the way (get it?! huh huh huh do you?) things worked.

Plus, I had a professor in graduate school who used to bring us cookies, and in fact, he spent a portion of his first lecture talking about crumbly cookies. It all related to gravity and physics and stuff, but mostly I remember the cream cheese chocolate chip cookies he brought that day.

So now I’m the professor, and I bring my students cookies. Is that weird? Probably, but I need someone to offload treats to, and who better than college students? I kept to safe, familiar recipes in the beginning, chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, brownies, but now I’ve started to get a little experimental.

It’s also nice to get feedback from a larger audience besides, you know, myself and sometimes Dave. Not that you want to be telling the person who grades your exams that their cookies totally suck or anything, but I can generally get a vibe.

I actually wasn’t completely sold on these cookies. Oh, they were good, of course – what’s not to like about brown sugar and butter? And they were pretty difficult to resist, but still, I think I was expecting something transcendent. I actually think the one seemingly insignificant place I went wrong was rolling the doughballs too thickly in the sugar coating. Too much raw sugar!

My students though, gave rave reviews – more so than normal, so I’m guessing they’re not just trying to get on my good side. So what do I know. Other than a whole lot of sciencey stuff, that is.

One year ago: Pan-Roasted Asparagus
Two years ago: Almond Biscotti (and Hazelnut Dried Cherry variation) – Dave’s favorite biscotti recipe

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Brown Sugar Cookies (from Cooks Illustrated)

Makes 2 dozen cookies

CI note: The most efficient way to bake these cookies is to portion and bake half of the dough. While the first batch is in the oven, the remaining dough can be prepared for baking. Avoid using a nonstick skillet to brown the butter. The dark color of the nonstick coating makes it difficult to gauge when the butter is sufficiently browned. Use fresh brown sugar, as older (read: harder and drier) brown sugar will make the cookies too dry.

My note: I made the cookies smaller, about 1-inch round balls. I baked them for 7-9 minutes. Even with the smaller cookies (and therefore more surface area), I still had far more of the sugar coating mixture than I needed.

14 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter
¼ cup (about 1¾ ounces) granulated sugar
2 cups (14 ounces) packed brown sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10.625 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Heat 10 tablespoons of the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until its melted, about 2 minutes. Continue to cook the butter, swirling pan constantly until it is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and transfer the browned butter to a large heatproof bowl. Stir the remaining 4 tablespoons of the butter into the hot butter to melt; set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a shallow baking dish or pie plate, mix the granulated sugar and ¼ cup (1.75 ounces) packed brown sugar, rubbing between fingers, until well combined; set aside. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Add the remaining 1¾ cups (12.25 ounces) brown sugar and the salt to the bowl with the cooled butter; mix until no sugar lumps remain, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula; add the egg, yolk, and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the bowl. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined, about 1 minute. Give the dough a final stir with a rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and the ingredients are evenly distributed.

4. Divide the dough into 24 portions, each about 2 tablespoons, rolling between your hands into balls about 1½ inches in diameter. Working in batches, toss the balls in the reserved sugar mixture to coat and set them on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart, 12 balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but it will take 3 batches).

5. Bake one sheet at a time until the cookies are browned and still puffy and their edges have begun to set but the centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between the cracks and seem underdone), 12 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Do not overbake.

6. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Filed Under: cookies, dessert

buttermilk scones

11/06/2009 By bridget

Having a great, seemingly perfect recipe for something isn’t enough to stop me from trying new recipes. There’s always something to learn, you know? Even though one of the first biscotti recipes I ever made is still the best, I’ve made many many more recipes and I’ve learned some little biscotti tricks along the way. But I still haven’t found a better biscotti recipe.

The cranberry scones were one of the first scone recipes I ever made, and certainly the first to knock my socks off. Of course, cranberries aren’t in season year-round anyway, but I successfully adapted the recipe for rhubarb, and I’m sure I could have used most other fruits.

But instead, I kept trying new recipes, including this one. And this time…well, I won’t say this recipe is better, but it is definitely as good. Aargh, don’t tell me I need to do a scone comparison!

I suppose it’s okay to have two perfect scone recipes, right? And one probably isn’t better than the other anyway. One thing I’ve found from recipe comparisons is that once you have great dependable recipes, it all comes down to personal preference.

Well, my personal preference is for whatever gets me a delicious treat on a Saturday morning. This certainly qualifies. And so does this.

One year ago: Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake

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Buttermilk Scones (adapted just slightly from Tartine, by Elisabeth Pruett and Chad Robertson)

The measurements are weird because this is half of the recipe in Tartine’s cookbook. But geez, who needs 5 cups of flour worth of scones? I’ve also made them slightly smaller – 8 scones for this half-recipe instead of 6, because 6 would have been huge. (Each scone would have 3 tablespoons of butter in it!)

Zante currants are just standard dried currants.

I skip the melted butter and just use milk on top of the unbaked scones.

6 tablespoons zante currants (1.75 ounces) or 3 ounces fresh berries
2¼ cups + 2 tablespoons (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ + 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup (1.75 ounces) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon + 1/8 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons butter, very cold
¾ cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
large crystal sugar or granulated sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. To make the dough, first combine the currants with warm water to cover in a small bowl and set aside for about 10 minutes until the currants are plumped. Drain well. If you’re using berries instead of currants, put them in the freezer.

3. While the currants are plumping (or the berries are freezing), whisk the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a large mixing bowl if making by hand, or into the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the sugar and salt and stir to mix with a rubber spatula. Cut the butter into ½-inch cubes and scatter the cubes over the dry ingredients. If you are using a mixer, pulse on and off so that you don’t break down the butter too much. You want to end up with a coarse mixture with pea-sized lumps of butter visible.

4. Add the buttermilk all at once along with the lemon zest and currants. (If you’re using berries, don’t add them yet.) Mix gently with a rubber spatula by hand or on low speed if using the mixer. Add the berries and continue to mix just until you have a dough that holds together. Be careful not to mash the berries into the dough, or you will color it with their juice. If the mixture seems dry, add a little more buttermilk. You still want to see some of the butter pieces at this point, which will add to the flakiness of the scones once they are baked.

5. Dust your work surface with flour, and turn the dough out onto it. Using your hands, pat the dough into a rectangle about 9 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 1½ inches thick. Brush the top with the melted butter and sprinkle with the sugar. Using a chef’s knife, cut the dough into 8 triangles. Transfer the triangles to the prepared baking sheet.

6. Bake the scones until the tops are lightly browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, freezer friendly, fruit, quick bread

cherry-fudge brownie torte

10/27/2009 By bridget

Most people I know have some Thing that they are, corny and dramatic as it sounds, passionate about. For Dave it’s music. I have a friend who brews beer, another who gardens, one who is all about house renovation, one who could spend hours a day researching his next bottle of wine. I love this aspect of people.

But damn, to have your Thing be baking? When you’re small and only moderately active, it presents a challenge. I think I could more easily give up eating dessert if I wouldn’t also have to give up baking dessert. I love watching butter and sugar and flour turn into dough. I love watching the shapes the beater makes as it spins through batter, the soft peaks of heavy cream, the smooth shine of melted chocolate.

I’m not overweight and I don’t think I’m even continually gaining weight – but my pants are a lot tighter than they were a year ago, and damn it, I like those pants. I like my clothes to be flattering, and I like being comfortable wearing a bathing suit.

But something has to give, other than the buttons on my jeans, that is. I’ve said this before. Nothing has given before.

This cake is definitely not a good place to start. The base is almost flourless, largely chocolate and butter and eggs. Dried cherries are added to the cake batter after they’re plumped in water, then flambéed in kirsch. Remembering how much I liked the partially pureed, evenly dispersed prunes in the chocolate whiskey cake, I mashed up these cherries as well.

The chocolate brownie base is covered in a mixture of cream cheese, mascarpone, and cream. Yeah, Tuesdays with Dorie hasn’t made a dessert this rich is a while. It is a good one though. I love the bright tartness of the cherries in the chocolate cake, and light mousse is a nice contrast to the dense cake.

So what to do in the face of this cake when I also want to feel good about myself? Well, eat healthier during the times when I’m not eating dessert, for one thing. For another, don’t bake anything extra, at least until Thanksgiving, when I’ll re-evaluate.

So, my goal, which I present to you: From now until Thanksgiving, so for a month, I won’t bake anything other than what’s required for my blog, 100% whole wheat bread, and a batch or two of biscotti for Dave to eat at work. I’m passionate about baking and it makes me happy, but having clothes that fit makes me happy too. I have to compromise. (Please don’t be confused if you see a slew of dessert recipes here over the next month. I have a huge backlog of recipes to post.)

If you’d like to try this cake, April has it posted on her blog. I accidentally melted all of the chocolate instead of saving a portion to mix in to the batter at the end.

One year ago: Dorie’s Chocolate Cupcakes

Filed Under: cake, chocolate, dessert, fruit, tuesdays with dorie

allspice crumb muffins

10/13/2009 By bridget

Dave wants just one thing to make his workday more enjoyable, just one simple thing, and that’s biscotti. Although what he really wants is almond biscotti, and not any almond biscotti, it has to be this recipe.

Sadly for Dave, biscotti aren’t one of my favorite things to bake, and I certainly have no interest in making the same recipe over and over again. No no, I have much more fun making muffins, so usually he brings muffins to work instead of biscotti. Poor, poor Dave.

Muffins are just so easy. Mix up some dry ingredients, mix up some wet ingredients, stir them together. Lately I’ve been adding the sugar and salt with the wet ingredients instead of the dry. They both dissolve easily, and if it’s brown sugar, I don’t have to worry about it clumping.

I wish I had taken the time to grind my own allspice – I have whole berries, plus a spice-dedicated coffee grinder, but I got lazy and stuck to the powder and my allspice flavor didn’t seem very distinct. But that’s okay, because these still make an excellent muffin – light, tender, tasty. I would certainly rather eat one of these with my morning tea instead of biscotti, biscotti, and more biscotti.

Kayte chose these muffins for Tuesdays with Dorie and she has posted the recipe. Next time, I’ll reduce the butter in the crumb topping by a tablespoon or two. Not only did I have more topping than I needed, but it didn’t seem quite solid enough and flowed off the muffin a bit.

One year ago: I swear this is a coincidence, but one year ago was the Lenox Almond Biscotti. Which are good, but do not pass Dave’s Biscotti Approval Test.

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, fall, quick bread, tuesdays with dorie

brandied berry crepes

04/18/2009 By bridget

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When I scoped out the fresh blueberry selection while shopping for the blueberry crumb cake a few weeks ago, I caught a strong scent of strawberries. Yay! I hadn’t seen them there, hadn’t even though to look for them yet, but I definitely wasn’t passing them up. After months of apples and pumpkin, I am so ready for some different fruit. Since then, I’ve been using strawberries in everything possible.

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I made crepes a few months ago, and while I was perfectly happy with the recipe I used, I decided to try a new one anyway. I didn’t use any whole wheat flour this time, but this recipe uses a quarter of the butter as the other one, which is even better. I just mixed everything in a blender and let it set while I waited a few hours for Dave to wake up.

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The filling was more of an adventure. Berries and sugar are heated to dissolve the sugar, then a mixture of cornstarch and kirsch is added. The filling is finished off with lemon juice and more fresh berries. For one pound of berries, the filling has ¼ cup kirsch, which seemed on the high side, especially considering the very low quality of my kirsch (and that this is breakfast). Then I accidentally added twice as much alcohol as I was supposed to. Blech, it was disgusting – it tasted like a college party. Fortunately, I had more of everything else, so I just doubled the rest of the ingredients. It still has a pretty strong alcohol flavor, but in a good way.

Topping with whipped cream, it’s a pretty decadent breakfast, one that could easily pass as dessert. But who wants to wait all day for something this good?

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One year ago: Almond Biscotti – still the best biscotti I’ve made

Brandied Berry Crepes (adapted from Williams-Sonoma Desserts via Evan’s Kitchen Ramblings)

For the crepe batter:
1¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (8.8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup + 1 tablespoon milk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for cooking the crepes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling:
8 ounces mixed berries or berry puree
¼ cup (1.75 ounces) sugar
pinch salt
1½ tablespoon cornstarch
¼ cup brandy, preferably kirsch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
8 ounces mixed berries

1. For the crepe batter: Add all of the ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. Let stand for at least 15 minutes or refrigerate for up to 8 hours.

2. For filling: Combine cornstarch and brandy in a small bowl. Combine the mixed berries or berry puree, the sugar, and the salt in a medium saucepan, then cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, then stir in the brandy mixture and cook until slightly thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in the lemon juice and add the remaining berries. Set aside.

3. Preheat a crepe pan or medium nonstick skillet of medium heat. When hot, grease with a dollop of butter (using a stick of butter to smear some directly on the skillet works nicely), and add enough batter to coat the skillet in a thin, even layer when you swivel the skillet around in your hand. Cook just until batter is set and golden on bottom, then flip and cook on second side for another minute or two. Repeat with the remaining batter, stacking the cooked crepes on a plate.

4. Spoon filling onto crepes, fold into quarters and serve.

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Filed Under: breakfast, dessert, french, fruit, quick bread, spring, summer

lenox almond biscotti

10/14/2008 By bridget

Dave loves biscotti, especially almond biscotti, so he was really happy about Gretchen’s pick for TWD this week. I do like biscotti, but I have trouble figuring out where it should fit into my routine. They’re too snack-like for dessert, but too unhealthy for a snack. Plus they’re kind of a hassle to make, with the slicing and the double-baking and all.

Ah, but almond extract, how I love it. The dough for this biscotti tasted really good.

There was some confusion among TWD members about what Dorie meant by “standing the biscotti slices up like a marching band” for the second baking, but looking at it now, I’m thinking she means that they should bake on the flat non-cut side of each slice. I laid them on a cut side instead, oops. I didn’t bother to flip them, but both sides seemed evenly browned regardless.

There is a reason why I do a lot of side-by-side comparisons of recipes. Not only is it the best way to spot small differences, but Dave, who is actually pretty good at picking out subtle differences in recipes, has a very bad memory for food. Whenever I ask him how one recipe compares to another, he says he’d need to taste them side-by-side.

Not so this biscotti. He knew immediately that he preferred the last biscotti recipe I made, even though I hadn’t made it in over 6 months. He likes that the other recipe is crunchier. Dorie’s biscotti were more tender than most that I’ve tried, which I don’t necessarily mind, but I’m not the main biscotti-eater around here. The reason for the difference is easy to see from a quick comparison of the recipes – Dorie’s uses almost twice as much butter.

So it looks like I’ll be sticking with my old biscotti recipe for now. If you’d like to check out Dorie’s recipe, Gretchen has it on her blog.

Filed Under: cookies, dessert, italian, nuts, tuesdays with dorie