Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
Biscotti has become one of our family staples for two reasons: first Biscottis can be manipulated to be reasonable on a calorie basis; secondly, they go great with our preferred beverage, coffee; lastly, making Biscottis isn’t as challenging as one might think and offers an opportunity to experiment. So, I added two favorite items Brazil Nuts and Macadamia nuts and this equals a buttery heaven.
enjoy, I did!
Roger
I love to tinker on many things. I find great solace in trying to solve the secrets of the universe… like how to make the perfect Biscotti? I have found using vanilla extract makes a biscotti have a ‘funny’ after taste… while using an entire vanilla bean — or two — is wonderful, but indulgent.I really don’t like plain Biscottis and those dipped in various chocolates are more of a dessert than something light with coffee. My preference is for nuts and Pistachios and Brazil nuts seems the most fun.
Here is my Biscotti recipe with some of the tweaks noted.
enjoy,
Roger Freberg
One of the greatest go-alongs with the best coffee is ‘Biscotti.’ Biscotti is a dry flavored cookie that was made to be dipped into coffee unleashing all of the previously hidden flavors! The challenge is finding a worthy recipe. The problem is that most of the Biscotti Recipes were fairly bland and not comparable with good commercial products. I decided to look into why there is difference.
First of all, the best commercial recipes include: butter, baking soda and baking powder. I suspect a little extra cornstarch is also added ( as you know cornstarch is already an ingredient in baking powder). In most of ‘home’ biscotti recipes, the batter is far too sticky to be manageable even on greased wax paper and this calls for a bit more flour and sugar for control. Lastly, diced macadamia nuts, nut flavorings ( I choose almond) and a good helping of vanilla makes it perfect!
So, at only 115 calories… this Biscotti works for my diet! Now, if you choose to dip it into white chocolate… that adds a little. Here’s the nutritional data:
Basic ingredients:
3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup potato flour
2 cups powdered sugar
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cups macadamia nuts whole and pieces ( then chop)
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon almond extract*
1 tablespoon vanilla extract*
* or replace with 2 scraped Vanilla Beans
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Process
1) use two bowls:
Bowl A — all dry ingredients and diced nuts
Bowl B — all wet ingredients, including parified butter plus powdered sugar
2) Add the dry ingredients to the liquid slowly and stir with a wooden spoon.
3) Place 1/2 the batter on buttered wax paper and spread out to 12 inches in length and about 1/2 inch thick and do the same with the other 1/2
4) place in preheated over 350 degrees for about 30 minutes then allow to cool
5) slice 3/4 to one inch sections… each section should provide 13 -14 pieces for a total of around 27
6) rebake for 7 -9 minutes with one cut side face down
7) flip the biscotti and toast the opposite side for another 7-9 minutes
8) OPTIONAL: dip the flat side of the biscotti into melted white chocolate an place down on wax paper to cool.
sound yummy enough?
NOTE: a fun change in spices is to use 1/4 teaspoon of my egg nog spice mix
Roger
