Chocolate Peanut Butter Biscotti

It shouldn't surprise you to find out that I was highly disorganized this Christmas and didn't actually have most of my home-baked gifts ready until Christmas afternoon. It's a long story, but I do have to thank the weather in part for helping me get it all done: the good old outdoor fridge was my ally and let my baking cool much more quickly than it would have had I kept it indoors. It was sunny but chilly, and the new deck's railing was the perfect size to keep the pans reliably steady.

I am in the habit of giving biscotti to C & R, my SIL's parents because they are big biscotti fans, and they have always told me how much they've enjoyed receiving it in the past. This year I made a double batch so that I could give some to my brother & SIL, too. Previously, I've made chocolate hazelnut biscotti and a lemon & sour cherry biscotti. This year, I chose to do peanut butter & chocolate biscotti.

It's always the same recipe, which I got from culinary school. It's fairly generic and therefore versatile.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Biscotti

85g butter
185g sugar
2 eggs
2tsp vanilla
300g flour
50g cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 or so cups of peanut butter chips
chopped toasted peanuts for sprinkling on top
about 1/4 cup or so dark chocolate chips or other dark chocolate, melted, for drizzling on the top

Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Add the dry ingredients.

Knead the dough lightly and pat into a "half moon" shape for even cooking, about 3/4" thick. (The "half moon" thing is in the original culinary school recipe; it's a little deceiving. What that means is rounded sides and a slightly rounded top.)

Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch, dry and cracked-looking. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Slice with a serrated knife, and then bake again until crisp and dried out - another 20 minutes or so.

Cool completely. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top and sprinkle with nuts.

Apparently, these were a huge hit!

Lemon & Sour Cherry Biscotti

Last Christmas, I made some Chocolate Hazelnut biscotti for my SIL's parents, C&R, who have always been so good to me. The gift was a big hit last year, so I decided to do the same again this year, only changing up the flavours.

I decided to try out one of the items from Jodi's parcel, the dried sour cherries! I have coveted these little babies for, like, ever because I see so many recipes for them. Yet, I have never been able to find them around here - only the whole ones in syrup. And I was dying to open a package to try them out, so I thought this was a good reason to do just that!

Holy crap - talk about tart! Talk about sour! But good!

Here is the recipe I concocted for the biscotti. Again, this is as culinary school recipe I doctored, and it will require a scale.

Lemon & Sour Cherry Biscotti

85g butter
185g sugar
2 eggs
zest of one lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
2tsp vanilla
353g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 cup dried sour cherries
white chocolate, for melting, to decorate the top

Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Add the dry ingredients.

Knead the dough lightly and pat into a "half moon" shape for even cooking, about 3/4" thick. (The "half moon" thing is in the original culinary school recipe; it's a little deceiving. What that means is rounded sides and a slightly rounded top.)

Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch, dry and cracked-looking. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Slice with a serrated knife, and then bake again until crisp and dried out - another 20 minutes or so.

Cool completely. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top.

Nice flavour combination, actually. It worked out well and these turned out beautifully! When C&R received them on Christmas morning, they were very much looking forward to having some coffee.

Thanks again to Jodi for the parcel!

Jodi's Parcel

Once again, I have been blessed by the generosity of my wonderful blog friends.

Last week, I got an out-of-this-world parcel in the mail from my good friend Jodi. It was full of the most amazing baking ingredients I have ever had! Here is a shot of the contents:OMG - real, actual, in the flesh vanilla beans! I have never ever had any at my disposal before EVER. Up here, they are about $7 per bean! Jodi sent me three packages - and they are all different!

Also, dried sour cherries! I have never been able to find these here, either! So, now I have tons for all kinds of different uses!

Additionally, there were some smoked pecans, a selection of maple products (the maple sugar is really nice on oatmeal), a selection of nice hot chocolates, some citrus oils (I cannot wait to use these babies!), some chopped ginger in syrup, a can of almond paste, some seasoning mix, some nice chocolate, and a cookie cookbook! I plan on using the ginger for an upcoming dessert - it will be perfect for a gingerbread cake I'm making.

I am blown away by the vanilla beans...I feel so decadent with them and now am not sure what to do with them all! I have lots of ideas for the cherries, though.

Thank you, Jodi! This is an awesome gift! I will definitely post about the things I make with these luxuriant ingredients!

And Juno was happy, too! She loves a new box to play in!

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

In keeping with this year's movement towards homemade gifts and giving food as gifts, I made these as a gift for my SIL's parents, C&R, who have always been very good to me. They have the hazelnut tree I cleaned off for them in the fall, and I thought it would be a nice touch to put some of their own hazelnuts in these cookies. This recipe is from culinary school and the original is pretty generic, allowing for many variations - one of which is this one. The measurements are mainly in weights, so you'll need a scale.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

85g butter
185g sugar
2 eggs
2tsp vanilla
300g flour
50g cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
70g chopped toasted hazelnuts
chocolate chips, melted, to drizzle over the top
additional chopped toasted hazelnuts, to sprinkle on the top

Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Add the dry ingredients.

Knead the dough lightly and pat into a "half moon" shape for even cooking, about 3/4" thick. (I found this the most difficult part of the process. I hadn't actually made biscotti since culinary school, so we're talking nigh on four years hear. I can't remember how we shaped the dough, so I winged it and it eventually worked out in the end. The "half moon" thing is a little deceiving; what that means is rounded sides and a slightly rounded top.)

Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch, dry and cracked-looking. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Slice with a serrated knife, and then bake again until crisp and dried out - another 20 minutes or so.

Cool completely. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top, then sprinkle on the additional nuts.

These tasted really good: nice and chocolatey but not too sweet. They dried out enough that some pieces broke off as I was slicing them, but they were glued back on with chocolate. I also made these crisp, but not so crisp the recipients might break their teeth on them. They certainly look quite gorgeous and I'm very happy with the results!

I got some cellophane wrap from my local kitchen shop and wrapped the cookies up with a ribbon so they made a nice presentation. I hope C&R love them!