Today I am deviating from my usual savory recipes to present one of my very successful baking endeavors: pistachio-cranberry biscotti, which I have dubbed Post-Holiday Blues Biscotti. Although I made them for Christmas, I have still been enjoying them in this rather dismal snow and cold filled post-holiday period and they have made me feel a bit more festive. I always found biscotti fascinating and never could figure out how they got that lovely crescent shape, which tells you what kind of a baker I am. I found out that it actually starts out as a loaf, and is then cut in 1/2 inch sections when done! Duh!
Post-Holiday Blues Biscotti |
And that brings me to this: I do not consider myself a baker, at least not yet. I find that baking can be unforgiving: one tiny error and it is overdone, or underdone, or the chemistry is not right and it falls, or does something else unexpected and strange, and you have just wasted two hours of your time. No amount of scraping or re-baking will help the product. Trust me. On the other hand, cooking allows for the occasional error...the dish can usually can be salvaged or re-purposed with the right ingredient or technique. I have had a lifelong fear of baking and I have tended to avoid it most of my life.
Venetians: Photo by Kelly Abel |
Lately though, I have discovered that I do love to bake, however, especially when it comes out perfectly. I love the yummy fragrance of sweet or savory oven baked goodies and I especially love tasting and sharing them with friends and family. I especially love the tools of baking: my stand mixer is a thing of beauty, and I love my rolling pins, my cookie cutters, my whisk. I love to mix cookie dough, and taste it: I love mixing a cake and watching it rise in the oven (through the oven window, of course!). I love the complicated: I recently mastered the Venetian, or rainbow cookie: it was a personal challege that I set up for myself, and I was so proud to gaze at the completed little bars, standing so proud like little soldiers on the cutting board. The proof was in the pudding as they say: they came out great.
BISCOTTI'S PROUD HISTORY: ITALY, OF COURSE
Rome: Photo by Frank Rubino |
Last year, my friends Nina, Josie and Pat were discussing how we don't see each other enough and realized we could get together once every couple of months and teach each other how to bake. So, that is how our "baking club" came into existence. We rotated hostessing the club, and meet every few months. Two of our notable outcomes were a tiramisu, adapted from a recipe from a Patsy's Restaurant cookbook, and the recipe presented today, a holiday biscotti, adapted from a recipe created by Giada DiLaurentis. I have been making this biscotti recipe for the second year in a row, and so have my friends.
POST-HOLIDAY BLUES BISCOTTI
This biscotti is a lovely twice-baked little crescent, and has a festive Christmas-y look, with pistachios giving it some green, and dried cranberries giving it a bit of red. The cookie itself is sweet but not too sweet; it can be adapted for other flavorings such as anise to make classic anisette biscotti. It was very important to me to make the cookie, or biscotto, not as hard as commercial biscotti as I once broke a tooth on a particularly hard cookie. Thus after the first bake, they are sliced and baked only until they start to become lightly golden. Giada's recipe included a white chocolate dip and red and green sugar crystals to decorate them; this we felt was gilding the lily...there was no need!
My beloved mixer |
Lemon zest and microplane |
And here is the recipe:
Chopping those pistachios |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour. I like Unbleached King Arthur Flour
1/2 teaspoons baking powder (not soda!!!!)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
Chopping those cranberries |
2/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped. Leaving them whole makes them too difficult to cut for the second baking. This was discovered by my friend Nina, in our baking club.
Whisking the dry ingredients |
Mixing altogether |
- Line a large, heavy cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Spoon the flour into the measuring cup, use your hand to even it with the top of the cup, and then sift using a sifter or a strainer into a medium bowl. Add the baking powder to the flour and use a whisk to blend.
- Beat the sugar, butter, lemon zest and salt using a stand mixer or place ingredients in a large bowl and use a whisk. Add eggs one at a time, beat until lemony yellow and blended. Add the flour mixture a bit at a time, and beat until just blended. Stir in the pistachios and cranberries.
- Form the dough into a 13 inch log, about 3 inches wide, on the parchment covered cookie sheet.
Forming a loaf |
- Bake until light golden for 40 minutes, or until it just begins to crack. If you wait too long, the cracks will be too large, although if you press it together after it is just done, it will be OK.
- Remove the loaf immediately from the pan and place on a rack or cool surface for about 30 minutes. You can use the parchment to move the loaf.
- After 30 minutes, it should be fairly cool to the touch. Using a sharp serrated knife, taking care not to ruin it by sawing too hard, cut into 1/2 inch slices. Arrange them cut side down on the baking sheet, and return them to the 350 degree oven, baking for about 15 minutes until light golden. Transfer them to a rack or cool platter and cool completely.
Baked and ready to slice |
Slicing after baking |
Variations: Anisette almond biscotti: Instead of the lemon zest, pistachios and cranberries, add 1 tablespoon anise extract, and 1 teaspoon fennel/anise seeds, and 3/4 cup chopped almonds.
A friend asked me about sugar free options. There are some substitute sugars on the market, such as Spenda, that measure cup-for-cup for granulated sugar. If someone would like to try it and give me a review of your results, please be my guest!
Ready for second baking |